Good Company Self-Destructive Habits

Jagdish Sheth, in writing his book, Self-Destructive Habits of Good Companies…and How to Break Them, describes 7 reasons why good companies have such a short life span. After his book was published, he found that companies often commit an 8th offense: not enabling their people to rise to the top level of their talent.

Here are the 7 self-destructive habits:

1. Denial of the threat of emerging technologies, changing consumer tastes, or a new global environment.
2. Arrogance over past achievements, or pioneering products and services, or unique strengths.
3. Complacency over past successes, or a belief that the future is in your control or an assumption that scale will protect you against setback.
4. Competency dependence, relying on a unique capability which has become irrelevant or obsolete.
5. Competitive myopia, characterized by a lack of peripheral vision, an inability to discern less obvious challengers whose threat, while not on today’s radar screen, is nonetheless dangerous.
6. Volume obsession, often a by-product of growth, characterized by an unhealthy imbalance between costs and revenue.
7. Territorial impulse leading employees and units within a company to become over-focused on their own turf, failing to connect with and focus on the goals of the organization at large.

Read Sheth's entire article at changethis and learn why these companies allow their top performing employees to “plateau.” And why talent is often left on the table.