Scientists are working on something remarkable: vaccines that could stop certain genetically driven cancers before they ever become cancer. What fascinates me isn’t just the prevention. It’s when they intervene.
These researchers aren’t simply acting because cancer might someday occur. They’re identifying people with genetic signals indicating an elevated risk and attempting to intervene before that vulnerability develops into disease.
There’s a management lesson here. Organizations shouldn’t try to prevent everything that could possibly go wrong. They’d spend all their resources protecting themselves and have nothing left to accomplish their strategy. But they shouldn’t wait for the damage either.
The real opportunity lies somewhere in between: recognizing when risk becomes a credible signal and acting before that signal becomes a consequence. That’s a much more sophisticated form of prevention. And perhaps a much better way to think about organizational problems.
The best time to solve a problem is before it becomes one.
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