Opportunity scanning

In his book The Effective Executive Drucker discusses the difference between firefighting in a business and looking for opportunities:

Problem solving, however necessary, does not produce results. It prevents damage.

Exploiting opportunities produces results

He gives seven situations that can give rise to opportunity:

1. An unexpected success or failure (yours or your competitors)
2. A gap between what is and what could be (e.g. overlooked markets)
3. Innovation in a process/product/service
4. Changes in industry or market structure
5. Changes in demographics
6. Changes in mind sets, values and perception
7. New knowledge or technology

All businesses have problems, but he advises to communicate opportunities first. To make it clear to everyone that they are more important than spending all your time talking about problems.