****-01-** Since the outbreak of the pandemic, the term "opportunity window" has become popular. However, its popularity is limited to professionals. Recently, I have chatted with many marketing professionals, and this term is used frequently. It comes up naturally, without any sense of incongruity. The pandemic is a disaster, but also an opportunity. When God closes a door, he opens a window. Some needs are rigid demands; when traditional channels are blocked, new channels open up. New channels are new opportunities! Opportunities are the result of environmental changes. Because of the pandemic, some waited and suffered heavy losses; because of the pandemic, some discovered opportunities and saw sales continue to grow. Many people seized the opportunity, but too many wasted it. However, opportunities belong only to a few; this is a characteristic of opportunities—no opportunity is shared equally by all. The famous American futurist Naisbitt said: "Success comes not from solving problems, but from seizing opportunities." -02- Business is adversarial competition. Adversarial competition has two major resources: one is "I am stronger than you", such as advantages in capital, talent, brand, technology, etc. This type of competition results in "the strong defeating the weak"; the other is "I seized the opportunity", where in a specific period, opportunities can temporarily outweigh resource advantages, resulting in "the weak defeating the strong". Wars have opportunities for combat, and business has opportunities for commerce. Therefore, war is not always a contest of strength. The same applies to business warfare. Where do opportunities come from? Opportunities come from environmental changes. The business environment has never changed more significantly or rapidly than during the pandemic. When the environment changes, some are sensitive, and some are not. When the sensitive take action, opportunities arise. Note that the recognition of opportunities is always "hindsight". Only when someone seizes it is it considered an opportunity. If someone talks about future opportunities, that is definitely not an opportunity; it is a trend. Trends can be predicted, but opportunities cannot. Naisbitt also said: "Opportunities are like windows left open in a storm; you don't know when they open or when they close." This is the charm and mystery of opportunities. -03- This pandemic is sudden and transformative, affecting all businesses in unimaginable ways. Even though China has gone through one round, overseas "copying homework" still doesn't work. Environmental change is the breeding ground for opportunities. All business opportunities are essentially brought about by environmental changes. Environmental changes make traditional business fail, and thus opportunities arise. However, in this pandemic, the words "opportunity" and "window" are often used together, which is rare. This is because the pandemic changes too quickly, and the window period is too short. It ends as soon as it begins. The shorter the window period, the more opportunity points there are. Counting carefully, there have been eight to ten rounds of opportunities during the pandemic. Since I started writing articles about the pandemic on February 4, I have repeatedly emphasized three terms: opportunity window, compensatory consumption, and revenge consumption. Opportunity window and compensatory consumption are relatively professional terms, while revenge consumption is relatively popular. Professionals talk about opportunity windows and compensatory consumption, while the media and the public hype revenge consumption. Many people think opportunities are metaphysical and hard to explain. Opportunities are hindsight, unpredictable, and fleeting... In short, opportunities favor the prepared, but we don't know how to prepare. It seems that "favor" is a matter of probability. However, business opportunities must have methodology and be traceable. They are not necessarily inevitable, but there is inevitability in contingency, which can be regarded as "probable" events. First, opportunities arise at the boundaries of the organization. Opportunities are environmental changes outside the organization, and they are unpredictable changes. What can be predicted are trends. The opportunities mentioned in the SWOT strategic analysis are actually trends. Trends can be grasped with resources. Internal processes of enterprise management do not generate opportunities, and there is no necessary relationship between a company's advantages and resources. Therefore, to seize opportunities, one must step outside the organization. Second, opportunities require "top executives at the vice president level to go deep into the front line." This is a viewpoint emphasized by positioning masters Trout and Ries in "Marketing Warfare". The original English name of "Marketing Warfare" is "Bottom-Up Marketing", and its core viewpoint is to elevate tactical opportunities into strategy. Although opportunities are born at the boundaries of the organization, the vast majority of frontline personnel do not have an opportunity mindset; instead, they view changes as "fearful paths", problems, and difficulties. Therefore, top executives need to go deep into the front line. However, not all top executives going to the front line is effective. Third, opportunities belong to the action-oriented. Since opportunities are hindsight, without action, the existence of opportunities cannot be proven. Only through action are opportunities proven. Fourth, consensus is the natural enemy of opportunities. Opportunities always belong to a few. Because they belong to a few, seizing opportunities yields "excess profits". At the same time, once an opportunity is validated, one must dare to stake all resources, because opportunities are fleeting, and because someone has seized the opportunity, others will frantically follow. When too many follow, the opportunity disappears. -04- How important are opportunities? Let's look at the understanding of opportunities in the "Huawei Basic Law". The logic of Article 22 of the "Huawei Basic Law" is: Seize the opportunity → sweeping marketing → positive feedback virtuous cycle → excess profits from the "opportunity window". The result of seizing opportunities is obtaining excess profits from the opportunity window. This shows how important opportunities are. Innovation and entrepreneurship, without opportunities as companions, are mostly difficult. Because for innovation and entrepreneurship, the return on opportunities is "excess profits". I have always emphasized that strategic opportunities are waited for, while tactical opportunities are sought. Strategic opportunities affect the overall situation, have a cyclical nature, and what should come will come. Strategic opportunities usually change the industry landscape, or even the world landscape. Tactical opportunities exist every day, because the market environment changes every day, but the question is whether you have noticed the changes and utilized them. Whether as a former corporate executive or as a consulting service provider, if you only spend money to solve problems without discovering business opportunities through sensitivity to market changes, then your value will be discounted. We should also remember the words of Trout and Ries in "Marketing Warfare": don't expect the front line to discover opportunities for you; top executives should frequently go deep into the front line. Going deep into the front line without discovering opportunities is a dereliction of duty. Source: Teacher Liu's New Marketing (ID: liuchunxiong1964) Author: Liu Chunxiong Tips will be paid 400-2000 yuan once the report is adopted.