In 1964, the Metropolitan-Dade county government completed construction of a new Miami port that accelerated the growth of the nascent Caribbean cruise industry. Throughout the next fifteen years, dozens of start-ups, including Royal Caribbean and Carnival, retrofitted existing ships to offer pleasure cruises. Established transatlantic cruise companies, such as Hamburg America Line and the White Star Line, which transported tens of millions of immigrants from Europe to the United States in the late 19th century, failed to seize the opportunity.
Incumbent cruise lines had every incentive to exploit the new market. The rise of non-stop commercial flights between Europe and North America decimated demand for transatlantic passenger cruises, produced massive overcapacity, and wiped out industry profits. They also knew about the market. For decades, European passenger lines had sailed overnight cruises to Caribbean ports with departures from Miami as a way to utilize their ships during the Winter, when rough waters limited Atlantic crossings.
Managers and entrepreneurs walk past lucrative opportunities all the time, and later kick themselves when
This blog is no longer active but it remains open as an archive.
Lucy Kellaway, FT columnist and associate editor, offers her solution to your workplace problems in a column in the Financial Times. In the 
