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130 Examples of Opportunity

John Spacey, updated on January 28, 2022

An opportunity is a set of circumstances that make it possible to do something. These occur at a time and place and may quickly pass such that regularly identifying and seizing opportunities is a basic approach to business and life in general. The following are common types of opportunity.

Access to an Audience	Acquisitions
Address The Root Cause of an Issue / Incident / Problem	Artistic Output
Automate Toil	Barriers to Entry
Brand Recognition / Awareness	Build Trust
Capitalize on a Trend	Career Change
Celebrate a Milestone / Success	Character Building
Close Sales	Close an Agreement
Control a Process	Correct a Flaw
Cost Reduction	Creative Partnerships
Cultural Capital	Cultural Experiences
Customer Needs	Customer Pain Points
Customer Perceptions	Defeat a Negative Habit / Routine
Delight Customers	Deliver a Project
Demographic Change	Deregulation
Design Improvements	Develop Knowledge / Know-how
Develop Relational Capital	Discontinue a Failing Strategy
Do Good	Economic Booms / Growth
Educational Opportunities	Efficiency Improvement
End a Failing Partnership	Engage in Competition
Enrich / Change a Culture	Epic Experience
Establish / Expand Partnerships	Establish Relationships
Establish Reputation	Establish a Positive Habit / Routine / Expectation
Expand a Business	Experiment
Express Yourself	Family Life
Freedoms	Friendship
Gain Experience	Growing Cities / Regions
Growing Industries	Implement an Idea
Important Conversations	Impress Stakeholders
Improve Decision Making	Improve Management of People / Resources
Improve Safety & Security	Improve Work Quality
Increase Resilience	Industry Consolidation
Influence / Inspire Others	Infrastructure Advancement
Inventions	Investments
Lead Change	Learn From Failure
Learning / Unlearning	Manage a Risk
Mastery of an Art	Missteps of Competition
Networking	New Job
New Markets	New Materials
New Processes / Methods	New Technologies
Optimize a Process	Overcome a Fear
Participate in Events	Perform a Role
Performance Improvement	Political Change
Political Power	Price Changes
Product Development	Productivity Increases
Promotions	Public Speaking
Publicity	Pursue a Lifestyle / Way of Life
Pursue a Mission / Vision	Pursue a Style / Aesthetic
Quality Improvement	Quality Time
Recover From Failure	Recruit High Performing Employees
Redefine Yourself	Redesigns
Reduce Turnaround Time	Reduced / Increased Barriers to Trade
Regulatory Change	Reinvent a Business Model
Relationships	Repay a Kindness
Reposition a Product	Resolve a Dispute
Responsibilities	Restructuring
Retain High Performing Employees	Retrenchment
Save Time	Secure a Supply
Social Change (e.g. attitudes and opinions)	Social Experiences
Social Status	Solve a Problem
Sponsors / Patrons	Stretch Goals
Support Others	Talent Cultivation
Teach / Mentor Others	Tell a Story
Test & Learn	Thank Someone
Upsell / Cross-sell	Value Creation
Volunteering	Work Assignments

Toil is unpleasant work that is best to automate.

Complying to regulations can be an opportunity when your competition find it difficult to do so. Regulations can represent a barrier to entry.

Cultural capital is the ability to relate to others in a cultural context.

Relational capital is the value of relationships. For example, an IT staff member who supports executives to help them resolve minor technical issues who ends up being so well known and liked that they are leading a division of the firm within a few years.

Retrenchment is the process of making a business or organization smaller. Growth isn't the only opportunity as making a firm more focused, efficient and nimble can also have advantages.

Barriers to trade such as new tariffs or trade agreements are often an opportunity to seize domestic customers or to expand into new markets.

Stretch goals are performance goals that are considered difficult to achieve. These are often an opportunity to show that you're ready for an increase role.

Problems vs Opportunities

It is often noted that circumstances perceived as problems can also be opportunities. To be clear, problems can be completely negative and its inappropriate to put a positive spin on everything all the time. This being said, it's true that problems are often opportunities. For example, an environmental problem that requires a new approach to a large scale industry such that incumbents who caused a problem are likely to be replaced with people who think differently.

Discussion

Opportunities result from both internal and external factors. For example, an opportunity to improve a product due to new materials or components that are available. This relies on internal factors such as your ability to design / develop / launch products and external factors such as markets, technology and suppliers.

130 Examples of Opportunity

Problems vs Opportunities

Discussion

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