How do organizations fail? First gradually, then suddenly….
Gradual organizational decline is a strong indicator of approaching disaster.
This typically happens when organizations shift from falling in love with their customers, to falling in love with themselves, their products, or their processes.
I have compiled a list of ten red flags which mark an organization which is losing its ways:
- Ballooning number of Vice-Presidents and Senior Directors.
- Special perks for executives, unrelated to improving customer value.
- The quality of excuses for failure is more important than achieving the actual goals.
- Low internal rate of promotion to senior leadership.
- Celebrity executives, who spend more time on Twitter and Talkshows, than running the company.
- Moving Head Quarters to a new fashionable location to ‘attract talent.’
- Signing bonuses for new executives coming from outside.
- Strategic decision making is outsourced to external consultants.
- A Chief [insert the current organizational fad here] Officer.
- The lobbying effort for changing regulations is bigger than the investment in innovation.
Which red flags would you add to this list?