Self Destructive Habits of Good Compan|eeez|....

A couple of weeks earlier, it was time for yet another volume to be surfed through. But, this time, the need was, less of personal and more of official. Had to present the learnings out of it, in the office, along with a couple of others. The name of the book is evident from the image of the cover page. Anyways, the content was basically about, the habits grown by great companies which finally end up in deteriorating their own charm. Seven habits, which author Jagdish N Sheth, says as “Self-Destructive Habits”, are discussed. The following are the excerpts…….

Denial : Basically a disbelief of reality, this is seen as the inability of a company to believe and admit that their success since long, is not really guaranteed.

Arrogance : Identified as an offensive display of superiority or self-importance, pride, haughtiness or disdain. Has everything to do with an inflated sense of self.

Complacency : It is categorized as the sense of security and comfort, that derives from the belief that, the success you’ve had in the past will continue indefinitely.

Competency Dependence : This is defined as the dependence of any company on only one of it’s competencies for deriving success. This limits the vision and blinds the concern to other opportunities.

Competitive Myopia : This is characterized as the near sighted view of competition. Basically acknowledging only the challenges of competitors which are direct and immediate.

Volume Obsession : Identified as a by-product of growth, it is a cost-inefficiency, which derives to the high costs incurred by a company in comparison to the revenues being generated by it.

Territorial Impulse : Company when becomes successful, tends to organize itself in to functional & geographic silos. If these various units donot get along with each other and seek their own autonomy, a concern falls in to this trap.

This is a very concise version of the entire volume, if one can spare some time, this is a good reading, because, each of the habit is explained in detail with case studies of great companies, like, General Motors, Sony, Xerox, Avon, A&P Retailing etc etc etc…..

Smile Always,

Raja Gopal /-