Thank you for this interesting piece. A truly useful resource to enable leaders spot and act on the early warning signs of enterprise gangrene.
Staying forever young means constant ‘pursuit of balance’. In life and in business, I find that the most simple concepts are generally extremely difficult to execute. Nonetheless, we keep pushing.
This is a fantastic read and it applies to almost every field and industry. Thank you for sharing. A question however, who in the company would you say is responsible for making sure the company is not growing old? The CEO, COO or HR director? Thank you
It should be a collective leadership imperative to watch for signs of aging. It’s easiest if the founder remains present over a long period but when that’s not possible, it can be a shared responsibility and part of the culture to remain young.
This cutting and insightful piece is fitting, especially because it is authored by a leader who has been in the driver's seat for startups and incumbents alike.
Any organization that no longer creates as much value is old. Some organizations become aware earlier than others depending on efficiency of their markets and tolerance level towards stasis. I have always wondered though, if organizations can every truly change and reinvent themselves.
How is it that incumbents almost always miss the boat to the future? These are very capable organizations with an unmatched mix of people (talent and experience), resources (capital, infrastructure), and assets (brand, customer relationships etc). They are never oblivious to what is coming. Matter of fact, they usually invent the next thing. BUT, they STILL miss it. Blockbuster for example knew streaming would be big. They created a service that almost killed early-days Netflix but decided to shut it down, most likely due to some or all of the factors outlined in your article.
I agree with your point that (I’m paraphrasing) the configurations and advantages that once served a company so well can quickly become liabilities. Moreso, a static organization may be able to coast along for a time, as long as the prevailing market paradigm continues to align with their existing strengths. But the moment a shift occurs that organization's failure becomes sudden and catastrophic.
For example, NITEL coasted for so long until deregulation happened. Now imagine some innovation comes along that drops the price of Starlink to say N20K all inclusive. That will be big big trouble for all the players now.
There’s an excellent article by Tim Harford titled, “Why big companies squander good ideas” that is totally worth checking out. Through that publication, I also discovered Rebecca Henderson’s extensive work on corporate innovation. Her research titled “Architectural Innovation: The Reconfiguration of Existing Product Technologies and The Failure of Established Firms.” has largely influenced my thinking on how organizations can stay sharp and nimble.
Yourself, Tim Harford and Rebecca Henderson have a similar conclusion — that staying young is a holy grail, and very few organizations ever find it.
Thank you for this interesting piece. A truly useful resource to enable leaders spot and act on the early warning signs of enterprise gangrene.
Staying forever young means constant ‘pursuit of balance’. In life and in business, I find that the most simple concepts are generally extremely difficult to execute. Nonetheless, we keep pushing.
This is a fantastic read and it applies to almost every field and industry. Thank you for sharing. A question however, who in the company would you say is responsible for making sure the company is not growing old? The CEO, COO or HR director? Thank you
It should be a collective leadership imperative to watch for signs of aging. It’s easiest if the founder remains present over a long period but when that’s not possible, it can be a shared responsibility and part of the culture to remain young.
Good one. I understand now and agree with you - "a collective leadership imperative". Thank you again for sharing
I loved this! Regarding organizational design, I really enjoyed this talk by Nan Yu from Linear earlier this year. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4vvBidQcck
Very timely read!
This cutting and insightful piece is fitting, especially because it is authored by a leader who has been in the driver's seat for startups and incumbents alike.
Any organization that no longer creates as much value is old. Some organizations become aware earlier than others depending on efficiency of their markets and tolerance level towards stasis. I have always wondered though, if organizations can every truly change and reinvent themselves.
How is it that incumbents almost always miss the boat to the future? These are very capable organizations with an unmatched mix of people (talent and experience), resources (capital, infrastructure), and assets (brand, customer relationships etc). They are never oblivious to what is coming. Matter of fact, they usually invent the next thing. BUT, they STILL miss it. Blockbuster for example knew streaming would be big. They created a service that almost killed early-days Netflix but decided to shut it down, most likely due to some or all of the factors outlined in your article.
I agree with your point that (I’m paraphrasing) the configurations and advantages that once served a company so well can quickly become liabilities. Moreso, a static organization may be able to coast along for a time, as long as the prevailing market paradigm continues to align with their existing strengths. But the moment a shift occurs that organization's failure becomes sudden and catastrophic.
For example, NITEL coasted for so long until deregulation happened. Now imagine some innovation comes along that drops the price of Starlink to say N20K all inclusive. That will be big big trouble for all the players now.
There’s an excellent article by Tim Harford titled, “Why big companies squander good ideas” that is totally worth checking out. Through that publication, I also discovered Rebecca Henderson’s extensive work on corporate innovation. Her research titled “Architectural Innovation: The Reconfiguration of Existing Product Technologies and The Failure of Established Firms.” has largely influenced my thinking on how organizations can stay sharp and nimble.
Yourself, Tim Harford and Rebecca Henderson have a similar conclusion — that staying young is a holy grail, and very few organizations ever find it.