This paper addresses a company’s tunnel vision and associated risks that may impact the success of the innovation process along with the analysis of a stakeholder map’s use.
In general, tunnel vision refers to a company’s inability to see the project’s broader perspective. In this case, it may focus on particular goals ignoring potential threats and opportunities (Newell et al., 2009). As a tunnel vision presupposes a lack of flexibility, it may impact the company’s adaptability to new conditions in the case of their occurrence and time-sensitive decision making when the project’s realities should be reviewed.
When a company focuses on a particular stages of the project ignoring external environment, any changes in it may lead to the project’s failure. The Frailty project was at risk of closure due to the shift of commissioners’ focus, and only CareCom’ ability to see opportunities allowed to implement necessary changes (Harris and Tucker, no date; Nielsen et al., 2018). At the same time, in business environment, tunnel vision implies a company’s failure to understand market realities, such as customers’ needs and demands, competitive advantages, and barriers (Brown, 2020, Goffin and Mitchell, 2017; PowerDoc, no date). Focusing on goals without an in-depth analysis of the project’s strengths and weaknesses may lead to the company’s poor performance.
Stakeholder mapping may be regarded as another strategy that contributes to the successful project implementation. It allows to identify key stakeholders, both internal and external, whose involvement in the project will be critical (Gisclard-Biondi, 2021; Hayes, 2018). First of all, stakeholder mapping allows to determine the most efficient way for the project implementation on the basis of people’s skills, knowledge and experience to remove obstacles and avoid mistakes (Clegg, Harris and Hopfl, 2011; Dodgson, Gann and Satter, 2008). In addition, on the basis of mapping, it is possible to plan communication between stakeholders essential for the innovation process more efficiently and predict conflicts for their prevention. Finally, stakeholder mapping allows to the see the whole picture in relation to stakeholders’ groups, relationships between them, resources, and capabilities. This helps evaluate the project’s expediency and correct it if necessary. However, it is essential to consider the balance of stakeholders’ interests and influence as the ignorance of these aspects may lead to poor cooperation and even confrontation. In addition, the inclusion of a large number of stakeholders may cause confusion and increase the complexity of the project. Nevertheless, one of the most successful example of a company’s stakeholder mapping is Lego’s project “One Reality” (Weverbergh and Vermoesen, no date). For it, a stakeholder map was created to evaluate crucial stakeholders’ contribution, build communication between them, and define the project’s main strategies.
Reference List
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