The Industry Map That Changed My Career (and How It Can Change Yours)

I didn’t plan to become the person who maps industries for a living. I just got tired of cleaning up messes that could’ve been avoided if someone had asked, “What are we not seeing?” The turning point came in Shanghai, when HQ made decisions about China from thousands of miles away—hiring a freelancer in Spain to recruit local candidates, ignoring my warnings about the tools and networks that matter on the ground. Two weeks later, I was left fixing the fallout. That’s when I realized: the real gap wasn’t East vs. West, it was between people who understood the ground game and those who only saw spreadsheets.

I stopped complaining and started mapping—not just people, but entire industries. I wanted to see what I was missing, not just what I was good at. Every executive should do this.

Here’s what I learned:

Target Industry Profile: Understand who’s growing, who’s shrinking, and where the real pain points are. Look beyond the headlines.

Key Challenges & Decision Makers: Identify the top business headaches. Know who actually makes decisions, who blocks, who champions.

Value Proposition: What can you bring that nobody else can? For me, it was seeing the invisible cracks in cross-cultural leadership.

Lessons from Failure: Every lost deal, every botched placement became a case study—not just for clients, but for myself.

Mapping industries isn’t a one-off exercise. It’s a living map. Every time I consider a career move or feel stuck, I update it. The biggest blind spots? Ignoring local realities, mistaking disengagement for laziness, and underestimating cultural nuance. If you’re not mapping your industry, you’re not mapping your own value—and you might be in the wrong room.

If this makes you uncomfortable, good. That’s where growth starts. Start drawing your own map, and you’ll never mistake comfort for safety again⁠⁠.