The Self-Destructive Habits of Good Companies – And How to Break Them, by Jagdish Sheth.
In The Self-Destructive Habits of Good Companies, Dr. Jagdish N. Sheth looks at success in business, through the lens of habit, to provide important insights into how “success courts its own demise.” The book is offered as an answer to the question: “Why do good companies fail?”
According to Dr. Sheth, successful companies often acquire self-destructive habits that eventually undermine their success. Although his research has uncovered an exhaustive list, he found seven, which he believes are crucial to avoid: (1) denial, (2) arrogance, (3) complacency, (4) competency dependence, (5) competitive myopia, (6) territorial impulse, and (7) volume obsession.
Like Stephen R. Covey, in his classic bestseller The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, this author sees habits as powerful, consistent, and often unconscious patterns that “produce our effectiveness or [in this case] our ineffectiveness.” But, also like Covey, he believes that habits can be broken—learned and unlearned, not with a quick fix, but with a process and a tremendous commitment.
