The Arc of the Enterprise V

Success leads to laxity and bloat, and these lead to decline. 

A very powerful resource position produces profit without great effort, and it is human nature that the easy life breeds laxity.  It is also human nature to associate current profit with recent actions, even though it should be evident that current plenty is the harvest of planting seasons long past.  When the profits roll in leaders will point to their every action with pride.

Books will be written recommending that others immediately adopt the successful firm's dress code, its vacation policy, its suggestion-box policies, and its method of allocating parking spaces.  Of course, these connections are specious.  Were there simple, direct connections between current actions and current results, strategy would be a lot easier.  It would also be a lot less interesting, for it is the disconnect between current results and current action that makes the analysis of the sources of success so hard and ultimately, so rewarding.

Success leads to laxity and bloat, and these lead to decline.  Few organizations avoid this tragic arc.  Yet is is the fairly predictable trajectory that opens the door to strategic upstarts.  

ACTION POINT:  To see effective design-type strategy, you must usually look away from the long-successful incumbent toward the company that effectively invades its market space.  There you will find a tightly crafted and integrated set of actions and policies.