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Why do so many good companies engage in self-destructive behavior? This book identifies seven dangerous habits even well-run companies fall victim to–and helps you diagnose and break these habits before they destroy you. Through case studies from some of yesterday’s most widely praised corporate icons, you’ll learn how companies slip into “addiction” and slide off the rails...why some never turn around...and how others achieve powerful turnarounds, moving on to unprecedented levels of success. You’ll learn how an obsession with volume leads inexorably to rising costs and falling margins...how companies fall victim to denial, myth, ritual, and orthodoxy... how they start wasting vital energy on culture confl ict and turf wars...how they blind themselves to emerging competition...how they become arrogant, complacent, and far too dependent on their traditional competences. Most important, you’ll find specific, detailed techniques for “curing”–or, better yet, preventing–every one of these self-destructive habits.
Preface xxi
Foreword xxiii
1 Why Do Good Companies Go Bad? 1
2 Denial: The Cocoon of Myth, Ritual, and Orthodoxy 19
3 Arrogance: Pride before the Fall 45
4 Complacency: Success Breeds Failure 75
5 Competency Dependence: The Curse of Incumbency 105
6 Competitive Myopia: A Nearsighted View of Competition 133
7 Volume Obsession: Rising Costs and Falling Margins 165
8 The Territorial Impulse: Culture Conflicts and Turf Wars 199
9 The Best Cure is No Cure at All 231
10 Endnotes 249
Index 263