Power Play: Back the dark horse

Power Players have a wonderful talent in backing the dark horse. It takes a special kind of talent to identify the long shot that will hit pay dirt.

In every room, and in every stack of ideas there's usually a dark horse. When it's a person, Power Players know how to identify and nurture the dark horse without them even knowing it. Why? Because it spooks the horses.

Power Players know that long shots don't need to be reminded that they're long shots, they just need to be given some confidence to hit their stride. And to keep the racing metaphor going, when they are given some space to run, they usually end up first past the post.

When the dark horse is an idea, Power Players make sure the idea gets the space it needs to seed and the room it needs to blossom.

Next time you enter a room, look around and see if you can identify the dark horse. If you're unsure, don't worry. It will take some time to learn to identify the long shot winners in the pack.

Once you get this talent down, it will become invaluable.

Entrepreneur, strategist and author Rose Herceg co-founded Pophouse, specialising in social forecasting, market research and business strategy in 1998 before selling it to STW in 2006.

Until recently Rose was strategy director of the STW Group, working across 70 companies on strategy, social forecasting, trends analysis and innovation. She is currently developing several online start-ups in media and media content.

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