The framework is a good analytical tool for corporate planners and strategic thinkers/ implementers. A caveat: a company must earn the right to grow before it embarks on an ambitious growth trajectory.

I completely agree with Mr. Alter that very different skills and types of personnel are needed to address the three horizons. Some managers are great at solving a customer or internal problem near term, but have no vision whatsoever. Some are visionary but can’t move fast and pragmatically to gather the facts and put a solution in place to solve an immediate issue.

Many thanks for the reminder that profitable growth is a continuous process. The three horizons describe quite well how new ideas can become emerging opportunities which may ultimately become part of the core business, while other businesses drop away. The big lesson needs to be that different skills and types or people are needed in each horizon. Great interactive video/audio as well.

The three horizons recommendation (to concentrate on all three for growth in value) appears simplistic in the scenario of the order books of the firm being virtually empty, the price of raw material through the roof, labor in a non-negotiating mood, cash flows negative, interest rates at an all time high, and government in no position to pull the firm / industry out of the mess.

Beautiful presentation on an old theme, managers don’t understand their average time to complete a task for their levels and thus focus on the wrong areas, either too short or long intervals (Horizon 1 & 3). Depending on the size of the organization, it may not be appropriate for CEO to focus on Horizon 2, but the middle managers who should are being forced to pay too much attention to Horizon 1 activities. It is the MBA (my bias) or Wall Street cycle of death for a company: maximize near term, develop the ‘killer’ app, who cares about the rest? Repetitive process/product/service improvements (Horizon 2) are not ‘sexy’ for investor buzz. They are however, the life blood of improving Horizon 1 performance and maturing Horizon 3 opportunities. Excellent graphics, thank you.

The idea emphasized is pretty good but stepping to the companies level, I think most companies fail even to find out the major innovation area. Considering the basics of strategic management, I have seen companies failing to address even cost terminals. In current scenario, we can find many companies in “stuck - up” in the middle kind of situations.

The beauty of 3 horizons thinking is that we can operate at a departmental or group level, too. We can look at how we do work worth asking for; earning a place at the table to help expand beyond tasks, and where we go to make ourselves indespensable as the organisation’s total strategy evolves. We can anticipate strategy development and be ready to survive into the future. It really works!

A very useful framework. One caveat—it seems to imply a discontinuity across the horizons. The Technology company example describes the Horizon Three as experimental and far away from the core. I believe the framework has great value in understanding how to build out from embedded competencies. For example see Apple’s rebirth as Jobs returned and first fixed Horizon One (the MacBook), then took the momentum and design skill into Horizon Two (iPod) and finally to Horizon Three (iPhone). The comments about requiring sharply different performance metrics and leadership styles are on target, as is the need for strong senior management attention and support for Horizons Two & Three.

It’s refreshing to see a major consulting firm speaking to the issue of executives tending to distant horizons and not only annual budgets. The diagram corresponds, to my eye, to what has propelled Apple under Steve Jobs and colleagues: sticking to core business principles “cemented” by a few corporate-wise values (e.g., design aesthetics) but also capitalizing on the digital content explosion while exploring more distant projects of, for example, virtual realities and simulations that rely on high-quality digital content. By contrast, the past few years have witnessed many organizations’ leadership myopically focused on this year’s returns while engaging in dalliances on the third horizon that lack any real continuity with what is going on now and in the next 2-3 years.

I appreciate your study and presentation on the subject. I agree without a question that business mangers today are spending their time on cashing Horizon 1 and investing on horizon 3 but what they miss is Horizon 2 which is actually their bread and butter and they really don’t think on this horizon. It is a different thing that fortunately in developing economies companies have demand and they are able to manage business from Horizon 2 in the long run automatically without giving a thought to it. It happens by accident and not choice.