“Sydney Finkelstein, the Steven Roth Professor of Management at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College, published ‘Why Smart Executives Fail’ 8 years ago,” Eric Jackson reports for Forbes.
“In it, he shared some of his research on what over 50 former high-flying companies – like Enron, Tyco, WorldCom, Rubbermaid, and Schwinn – did to become complete failures,” Jackson reports. “It turns out that the senior executives at the companies all had 7 Habits in common. Finkelstein calls them the Seven Habits of Spectacularly Unsuccessful Executives.”
Jackson reports, “These traits can be found in the leaders of current failures like Research In Motion, but they should be early-warning signs (cautionary tales) to currently unbeatable firms like Apple, Google, and Amazon.com. Here are the habits, as Finkelstein described in a 2004 article.”
The seven habits of spectacularly unsuccessful executives:
1. They see themselves and their companies as dominating their environment. (Warning sign: A lack of respect.)
2. They identify so completely with the company that there is no clear boundary between their personal interests and their corporation’s interests. (Warning sign: A question of character.)
3. They think they have all the answers. (Warning sign: A leader without followers.)
4. They ruthlessly eliminate anyone who isn’t completely behind them. (Warning sign: Executive departures.)
5. They are consummate spokespersons, obsessed with the company image. (Warning sign: Blatant attention-seeking)
6. They underestimate obstacles. (Warning sign: Excessive hype)
7. They stubbornly rely on what worked for them in the past. (Warning sign: Constantly referring to what worked in the past.)
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: This describes beleaguered RIM perfectly (except for #5 in which they’ve replaced “consummate spokespersons” with “babblers of nonsense.” DCW.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Ann T.” for the heads up.]
