Window of opportunity – definition and meaning

A window of opportunity, also called a critical window or a margin of opportunity, is an chance to do something that will only last for a short time – it needs to be taken advantage of rapidly; before the window is gone. It is a very short time-frame during which an opportunity must be seized or lost.

In other words, it is an opportunity that will achieve a desired outcome – but it comes and goes very quickly. Once this ‘window’ is closed, the outcome is not possible anymore.

In the world of real estate, finance and banking, mergers and acquisitions, business offers, etc., the opportunity to take advantage of a super deal does not last forever – the window of opportunity is that fleeting moment when it is ideal to act.

In emergency medicine, the window of opportunity, often referred to as the golden hour or golden time, describes the period after a traumatic injury, stroke, or cardiac arrest during which life-saving treatment has a good chance of being successful.

As far as crop farmers are concerned, there are two windows of opportunity – the planting and harvesting seasons. If you miss those critical periods, your crop yields will be considerably lower.

When launching a rocket into space, the window of opportunity refers to the small period during which conditions are ideal for lift off. The conditions may be related to Earth’s atmosphere, or our planet’s position in space.

According to BusinessDictionary.com, a window of opportunity is: “Short timeframe during which an opportunity must be grasped or lost.”

A window of opportunity is a favorable moment for doing something that should be taken advantage of immediately, because it will soon be gone.

Window of opportunity – IPOs

The IPO (initial public offering) of a stock is a good example of a window of opportunity. With some shares that might shoot up in price, there is a tiny window during the IPO before prices go sky high.

This type of fleeting window of opportunity has become more common and critical since the advent of the Internet and the **IPOs of Google, Alibaba, Zynga, Twitter and Facebook.

** An IPO occurs when the shares of a company become available for the public to purchase for the first time – when a private company goes public; when it is floated.

How long the critical window stays open may be well known, as is the case when launching a rocket, or poorly known, which is often the case in medicine or global warming.

Sometimes there may more than one window of opportunity during which a desired outcome can be achieved.

It is said that we all have windows of opportunity during out lifetime. Unfortunately, we let most of them pass by without exploiting them.

Tim Tebow, a former professional American football player and current New York Mets professional baseball outfielder, once said:

“We all know of people who thought they could to it (whatever “it” is) tomorrow. We have all procrastinated on such a way, and often to our personal regret.”

“It happens time and again, putting off things that we convince ourselves might be better, more meaningful, more appropriate for another time. So often that better time either never comes or really isn’t better or more appropriate after all. And then, sadly, the window of opportunity -to do something great- closes.”

Sir Richard Branson is a British business magnate, philanthropist and investor. He founded the Virgin Group, which today controls over 400 companies. Sir Richard has dyslexia and did not do well academically at school. British naval officer and schoolmaster, Robert Drayson, told him that he would either end up becoming a millionaire or in prison. (Image: adapted from twitter.com/richardbranson)

Sometimes human beings are not fast enough to take advantage of unpredictable and extremely short windows. In algorithmic trading, real-time computing systems are able to guarantee responses in the order of thousands of a second, or even faster.

Windows of opportunity are sometimes falsely implied as a marketing tactic to encourage consumers to act quickly. ‘Limited time offer’ campaigns are common and extremely effective.