Killed by a corporate culture of complacency
What happened to Kodak, Schlecker and Blockbuster? They all have declared bankruptcy.
Usually, when this hits the news it is analyzed by the numbers people who, looking at five years’ worth of financial data, give their quantitative and financial explanation of the failure. More qualitative types will go back 10 years sometimes, and even go beyond finances to talk about strategy, competition etc.
And yet people still fail to see these companies real problem. Complacency is a dangerous culture that permeates beyond the walls of mega corporations and extends into the reaches of every day companies and institutions.
Complacency almost always comes from a sense of success and lives long after the success that created it has disappeared. Organizations and individuals that are complacent do not look for new opportunities or hazards. They are almost always internally focused and they do what has worked for them in the past. They pay insufficient attention to new opportunities and frightening new hazards.
But in a fast-moving and changing world, a sleepy or steadfast contentment with the status quo can create disaster.
The fight against corporate complacency
Some companies seems to be dealing very proactively with complacency – in it’s value statement Northwood has declared “war” against corporate complacency:
If the culture of an organization is one of complacency, and mediocrity, the interaction might be an average, or below average experience. If the culture is one of excellence, commitment, honesty and integrity, the experience will likely be entirely different. The culture at Northwoods will always be the latter of the two. Complacency and mediocrity are not qualities of our employees and therefore will never have a place in our corporate culture (Our Corporate Culture)
And Hyundai:
We refuse to be complacent, embrace every opportunity for greater challenge, and are confident in achieving our goals with unwavering passion and ingenious thinking
Don’t fall into the comfortable trap
As Apple launched the iPhone a couple of years ago Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer was laughing about the launch in an interview with CNBC. Two years later, the iPhone is a huge success and has much more market share than Microsoft in the smartphone segment.
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Killed by a corporate culture of complacency — http://www.torbenrick.eu/t/r/iuv
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