In Eric Schmidt's interview with Charlie Rose, he made an admission worth examining.  When he was considering an offer to become Google's CEO he came close to turning them down because he was skeptical of their business strategy, built as it was on online advertising revenue.

Schmidt, using blinders put in place by his own experience (like most of us), couldn't imagine that people would actually click on ads.  Personally, I've NEVER clicked on a Google ad and I use Google all the time.  (My blinders in this situation would be more like a blindFOLD.)  He managed to overcome his reservations and took the Google job.  Last year their advertising revenue was nearly $7 billion and he now states that they've only begun to tap the advertising revenue potential. 

His initial reluctance is a great example of why many talented leaders miss opportunities, particularly in the electronic realm. If you let your own blinders hold you back, you may miss chances to change, grow and get ahead of the competion.  In the nonprofit realm, we combine this with the (understandable) blinder of limited resources. 

Nonprofits must not only remove their blinders and learn new strategies, but they must stop some old ways of doing business (i.e. save money) so that they can experiment with new strategies.  This double whammy of change resistance is so hard to overcome.

 

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