Sometimes opportunity knocks. Other times it pounds the door, screaming to be let in. Yet the rapping is sometimes unheeded -- there's the date you didn't ask to the dance, the email not sent, the salad ordered when everyone else got steak.
For business leaders, a missed opportunity can cost a fortune. It's not hard to imagine the regret of the ABC-TV executives who passed on a sitcom proposal featuring comedian Bill Cosby that NBC later rode to billions of advertising dollars over a dozen years.
Or to empathize with the Mars officials who failed to realize why it might be advantageous for the candy maker's M&Ms to be featured in the 1982 film "E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial," which did wonders for a new product, Reese's Pieces, from rival Hershey (HSY).
Yahoo (YHOO) likely would be on stronger financial footing today had it not backed away in 2006 from a $1 billion buyout of Facebook, despite a handshake agreement between Terry Semel, then Yahoo's chief, and Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg. Subsequent efforts to salvage the deal fizzled.
For business leaders, a missed opportunity can cost a fortune. It's not hard to imagine the regret of the ABC-TV executives who passed on a sitcom proposal featuring comedian Bill Cosby that NBC later rode to billions of advertising dollars over a dozen years.
Or to empathize with the Mars officials who failed to realize why it might be advantageous for the candy maker's M&Ms to be featured in the 1982 film "E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial," which did wonders for a new product, Reese's Pieces, from rival Hershey (HSY).
Yahoo (YHOO) likely would be on stronger financial footing today had it not backed away in 2006 from a $1 billion buyout of Facebook, despite a handshake agreement between Terry Semel, then Yahoo's chief, and Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg. Subsequent efforts to salvage the deal fizzled.