Sometimes the best opportunities lie hidden in something that, at first glance, makes no sense. Idiosyncratic customer preferences or employee behavior can lead to aberrations in business results. How do you deal with these anomalies?
One common response is to ignore them. Most organizations try to contain or suppress anomalies, for fear they will draw attention to departures from standard operating practice. When senior managers learn of anomalies, they generally dismiss them as random, one-time events.
That’s too bad. Anomalies can reveal what your customers really want and what your organization is capable of delivering in response. Paying attention to them may point you to major opportunities to grow your business, by doing on a broad scale what some part of your company is already doing on a small scale.
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