Too often businesses look at short term return on investment (usually one to four quarters), and they miss longer term strategic goals. A great example of this was the choice by Toyota and Honda to embark on developing hybrid technologies twenty years before the technology actually developed into saleable cars!
It can be really hard to engage this kind of thinking because it requires risks that aren't even known or knowable, but it's these very risks that reap the biggest rewards.
So, as a leader how might you evaluate an option like this? What would it take for you to take a risk so great it may have no pay off, but if it does succeed with result in the greatest success?