We talk a lot in business about “seeing the big picture,” but there’s a tendency to focus on obvious connections — how marketing influences sales or how operations affect costs. Finding a competitive advantage, however, comes from spotting relationships that aren’t so obvious. Prime example: how expired yogurt on store shelves can reveal flaws in a company’s product allocation. More on that in a bit.
The thing to realize is these hidden connections are everywhere, and I do mean everywhere. They’re just waiting for someone who knows how to look for them.
I’ve learned — sometimes the hard way — that the prepared mind develops systematic approaches to pattern recognition. Everyday observations can turn into a competitive advantage, as opposed to being dismissed as “part of doing business.”
My understanding of this opportunity-in-the-making started years ago when I worked at PepsiCo. I was taking a corporate development assessment and had to provide a rating for how well I “see relationships between seemingly unrelated events.” I gave myself a 2 or 3. My boss gave me a 5 and, much to my surprise, he added, “Don’t underestimate how skilled you have become at connecting dots.”
Today, I like to think of this pattern recognition as an “opportunity radar.” So let’s talk yogurt.
When Patterns Hide in Plain Sight
Early in my new role as CEO of SpartanNash, I was walking through one of our stores when a manager mentioned they were about to dispose of a large amount of expired yogurt. My first question was simply, “How did we end up with so much yogurt that our shoppers don’t want?”
Turns out, we had a system that had evolved over time where we were shipping items based not on store guest preference but on corporate priorities. These priorities rewarded buyers for buying at a good price and shippers for shipping items out to stores – but did not include accountability for either of these groups for product that went out of code. That accountability was only in the stores. So, if we ordered too much, we then added even more costs by shipping this extra product to the stores to throw away… ouch!
Obviously, this wasn’t intentional or nefarious. It was just a practice that had grown little by little, based on a series of reasonable-seeming decisions that had never been examined as a complete system. Spotting the pattern — connecting expired yogurt to allocation processes to shopper behavior — opened a much larger discussion about inventory and sales.
The Three Elements That Matter
Pattern recognition isn’t mystical. It’s the result of three consistent behaviors:
- Systematic curiosity. When you consistently ask how things work — even things outside of your immediate domain — you fine tune your ability to recognize new patterns even quicker. The key insight from that PepsiCo assessment was that – because of personal and professional growth – I’d trained myself to spot dots and explore connections, even if I didn’t realize it myself.
- The courage to ask questions. Most people naturally want to dig deeper into problems, but they’ve learned that not all bosses appreciate direct questions, much less follow-up inquiries. The prepared mind asks anyway. Persistence pays off. As I wrote about in the power and joy of being wrong, breakthroughs often come when we speak up and shift from “How do we prove we’re right?” to “How might we be wrong?”
- Acting on sufficient information. Waiting for perfect data usually means waiting too long. The prepared mind understands the difference between insufficient information and imperfect information, then moves when there’s enough to make reasonable decisions.
Surfacing Information from Every Level
Building an internal opportunity radar requires systematic ways to gather information that might be obscured by the daily grind. New input from new sources is invaluable. I visit stores and distribution centers regularly, spending time with frontline Associates who see different patterns than I do.
These conversations reveal opportunities that can get lost in translation as information moves through organizational layers. The person stocking shelves at 5 a.m. notices shopper behaviors that may not surface in monthly or quarterly meetings. The distribution worker sees operational realities moving inventory and filling trucks.
Even across an entire industry, all players have access to roughly the same data. We might see the marketplace from different perspectives, but the big picture is just that. It’s big and right in front of us. Competitive advantage comes from asking different questions about information available to all.
When the Radar Fails
Opportunity radar isn’t infallible. I’ve misread signals. Not all dots connect neatly. When that happens, I treat it as additional data rather than evidence the system doesn’t work.
The goal, after all, isn’t perfect accuracy. It’s getting better at spotting opportunities before they become obvious. Failures become inputs that improve the radar’s calibration.
As I blogged earlier on how optimistic leaders navigate AI disruption, prepared minds gather more data, not less, because they’re looking for dismissed possibilities. And there’s definitely a point at which enough is enough. Analysis paralysis is the enemy of effective decision-making.
The Daily Practice
The most important habit is deceptively simple. Just ask more questions. Don’t let unfamiliar processes, unexplained outcomes or industry jargon pass by without asking to learn more. Today’s curiosity about supply chain logistics, for example, might become tomorrow’s insight into market opportunity.
Opportunities rarely announce themselves in advance. Obvious trends today are tomorrow’s old news. See and synthesize while the competition is looking the other way or getting fixated on the shiny object du jour. The prepared mind with an always-on opportunity radar can glimpse what’s just beyond the horizon.