There is a very real danger in being successful and despite being fairly obvious, it is nonetheless common for those who are successful to fall victim to it. Many a company have fallen victim to it, and you can read about it in the various books written by ex-CEO’s of once mighty corporate empires that now no longer exist or are a husk of what they used to be. Everyone who reads these books inevitably thinks “When I’m successful, that will never happen to me.” But it does, time and time again. If they’re lucky to be successful, that is.
A little while back - I think it was October last year - I read about how RIM overtook the Royal Bank of Canada as being the most valuable company in Canada. Their market share is growing and growing. RIM is successful. And so I’m worried about them because I think RIM is falling victim to the same dark side of success. What is the danger of being successful? In one word, it’s arrogance. But it’s more than that too. It’s abandonment of the core “working philosophy” that created that success.
N: “You should try initiative X or Y?“
R: “No! Our market share is growing, we’re rolling in barrels of money. Don’t upset the apple cart.“
Where a growing company, a fighting company, would take every door slightly ajar as an opportunity and stick a big foot in there, a company that is successful will not. Why should they, things are going great! What’s the point of putting your foot through another door when staying put keeps everything smooth? It’s a valid line of reasoning, until when writing an autobiography many years later after the company has stagnated and died - taken over my more innovative, fighting companies - the CEO recalls what made the company great, what made the company successful, was sticking that foot through every single door in a fight to stay alive.
Have you ever noticed how those companies and those individuals that have experienced true success, success with longevity, are the ones that have constantly re-invented themselves over time? Madonna constantly re-invented her image to stay relevant and so has Apple. Where previously McDonald’s was a purveyor of disgusting fatty foods, nowadays their menu’s are chock full of healthy looking stuff. They too have reinvented themselves to stay relevant, to stay competitive. To digress slightly, I still think McDonald’s is a purveyor of disgusting fatty foods, but the average mum and dad no longer thinks this so I guess that’s what counts. The point is that those companies and people that have experienced real success, success with longevity, are in a constant state of change. Without change, you die. Slowly at first, but then exponentially growing as the momentum of the real-world, of hive-like consumer behavior, drives you down in to the grave.
At a time when RIM is walking around patting itself on the back for being so darn successful, and rejecting change so as not to upset the apple cart, hundreds of companies are out there preparing to wage war and embracing change, embracing consumer wants, embracing developers, encouraging an army of employees who are not burdened by success but rather have dreams of it, and most importantly are open to trying anything and everything, no matter how closed a door may look.
RIM is successful. So was WordPerfect, the de facto standard for word processing in the late 80’s and early 90’s. Right now I’m reading a book by a senior executive who worked on it and in his view what ultimately killed their product was the fact that they ignored the coming of Windows for so long. So long in fact that when they finally got out a Windows compatible version that worked reliably it was too late. He doesn’t think Microsoft’s anti-competitive practices killed them, though I know that other many do. He says “At the height of our success, we ignored this apparently insignificant up-and-comer.” He’s wasn’t the first to do that and I can guarantee won’t be the last.
So to Mike L, Jim and all the VPs at RIM who I know sometimes stumble upon this blog: embrace the winds of change. In ten years from now will I be reading your autobiographies, learning once again how the dark side of success has claimed more victims?