Entrepreneurs are not immune to blind spots that can slow progress and threaten the survival of their ventures. Typical blind spots include unwavering beliefs in things that are no longer true, underestimating gaps in knowledge, and being unaware of critical knowledge gaps. To mitigate these blind spots, entrepreneurs should understand potential blind spots, develop clear mitigation plans, and continually investigate and assess blind spots by embedding their evaluation into leadership activities. Doing so can provide advance warning to respond appropriately to impending consequences of blind spots.

1. Every industry has examples of incumbents with seemingly unassailable market positions
who were simply blind-sided by changes in their business. Every one of them felt that they
“were different” and it “couldn’t happen to them.” In telecoms, Nokia lost a seemingly
unassailable position because they were slow to recognize the smartphone opportunity. In
media, Blockbuster and Tower Records did not transition fast enough, or at all, to digital
content consumption trends. Incumbents being blind-sided to change is what creates
opportunities for entrepreneurs with strategic foresight.
However, entrepreneurs must also understand that they are not immune to blind spots either
and, unlike industry incumbents, theirs can have more sudden and brutal consequences.
Blind spots reduce an entrepreneur’s awareness of their competitive environment and
diminish their responsiveness to opportunities and threats. These blind spots can manifest, at
best, as friction slowing down progress and results, and at worst, sow the seeds of a
corrosive, and eventually terminal, company culture. As the consequences of blind spots
present an existential threat, it would be wise for entrepreneurs to recognize typical blind
spots and to put in place structures and mechanisms to mitigate them.
Typical Entrepreneurial Blind Spots
Our understanding is comprised of three building blocks: our beliefs, uncertainties and
unknowns. The critical challenge for entrepreneurs is that the environment they have to
navigate is skewed, by its very nature, towards uncertainties and unknowns.

2. However, typical blind spots can occur across each building block of our understanding:
Unwavering belief in things that are no longer, or never were, true: to quote Mark Twain,
"what gets us into trouble is not what we don't know. It's what we know for sure that just ain't
so." This blind-spot is often the consequence of past successes: we believe that the factors
that drove past success will continue to be the basis for future success. As technology,
competitors and consumer habits evolve, the drivers of past success can increasingly
become redundant. This blind spot is particularly acute for incumbents for whom it is
understandably challenging to focus resources and effort away from an existing cash-cow to
an unproven future prospect. Furthermore, past success tends to be a very poor teacher. We
often misdiagnose the causes underlying our success, resulting in an overemphasis on the
wrong success driver, i.e. marketing prowess or sophisticated technical features, at the
expense of the real competitive differentiator.
Underestimating the importance of gaps in knowledge: This second category of blind
spot derives most often from the background, interest and, ultimately, inflexibility of the
entrepreneur. You will see this in the sales-focused entrepreneur who promises things
without seeming to care much for the details on how things will actually get done. You may
see this in the technical entrepreneur who doesn’t seem to be able to see beyond the
solution he is building to care enough about how this idea will actually become self-
sustaining before the cash is burnt out. Ultimately, this blind spot occurs when the
entrepreneur confuses what they like doing with what is important and/or when they partner
with people with complementary skill sets and just don’t let them do their job.
Being blissfully unaware of critical knowledge gaps: This category of blind spot, by
definition, is the most difficult to address. It is also unavoidable in an entrepreneurial
environment. Entrepreneurs who try to investigate what lies under each possible stone will
find the opportunity has passed them by. In fact, individuals who are uncomfortable with this

3. extreme of uncertainty, complexity and conflict may wish to consider an alternative career.
Most entrepreneurs will just decide to dive right in and hope their executional agility and
blind luck will help them ride out whatever turbulence they encounter. Either one of these
options is fraught with re-work and iteration that the entrepreneur may simply not have the
time, endurance or resources to endure.
Mitigating Entrepreneurial Blind Spots
Step 1: Understand and categorize potential blind spots
The ventures business plan should be the primary source of identifying potential blind spots,
many of which will already be self evident if the business plan was put together with
appropriate rigor. The critical assumptions made in the customer needs, market trends,
operational plan and financial forecasts can easily be translated into potential blind spots for
investigation. It is important to filter all these potential blind spots to focus on the dozen or so
that would have the most catastrophic impact.
Step 2: Develop a clear mitigation plan
The focus list of blind spots then needs to be actioned. It is critical that the understanding
and ongoing evaluation of these blind spots is embedded into day to day activities. Any
potential blind spot in pricing should be the ongoing focus of business development. Any
potential blind spot in user adoption should be center of attention for product development.
By ensuring these blind spots are owned and reviewed by the leadership team on a regular
basis is critical.
Step 3: Continually investigate and assess blind spots
There are a number of resources that could provide invaluable input into the identification,
analysis and mitigation of blind spots. Some of these resources will be “internal”, for example
employees and the board, and some will be more ad-hoc sources, such as investors, advisors
and mentors. However, it is critical the entrepreneur focuses the right questions to the right
audience. Depending in the compositions of various resources,

4. The fast paced and uncertain nature of the entrepreneurial environment will lead to
uncertainties and unknowns. The entrepreneur will not have the luxury of time to analyze and
assess every potential blind spot. Equally, the entrepreneur cannot rely solely on agility to
luck to survive the consequences of adverse blind spots. It is critical for the survival of the
venture that entrepreneurs embrace potential blind spots and embed the ongoing
evaluation and mitigation of these blind spots into the day to day leadership activities. The
greater the advance warning of impending consequences of blind spots, the greater the
ventures agility and luck to appropriately respond.
About the Author: Sohail Gondal, Founder & Managing Partner
Sohail has a proven track record of delivering shareholder value for principal investors through active management of a
portfolio of companies. Over the course of his professional career, Sohail has built new businesses as a founder and
early stage Director, delivered operational and bottom line improvements to companies in Family Office portfolios in
interim positions, restructured or turned around businesses as a CEO and served Boards and CEOs of large
corporations as a strategic advisor.
At home in a broad number of industries, Sohail has a deeper understanding, from a strategic, investment and
operational leadership perspective, across sectors including retail, technology, telecoms, media, education, financial
services and private equity. Sohail holds an MBA from Columbia Business School, a Masters in Industrial Engineering
from the London School of Economics and a bachelors degree with double major in Accounting & Computer Science
from the University of Liverpool.