Diagnosis

Every company has this problem, it's so prevalent in old companies with high share and established brands. They are not aware of their health deterioration till it becomes so severe and there is a free fall. And it's so deep in companies where the brand loyalty is very high, they keep harvesting for years, they are not aware that everything looks fine, in spite of serious cracks in their organisation.

And by the time they realise, it's too late and there is a free fall and panicking leads to further free fall. That's why preemptive transformation is vital for every organisation, they need to look beyond revenue growth, market share growth, profitability and scan for the changes in the environment. I phone or even Apple would not have been there now if they have not looked beyond I pod which was at it's peak when I phone was launched.

It looks so obvious but many organisations have not understood this because they are too preoccupied in their short term challenges only to understand later that those are the symptoms of a larger issue. And the leaders strive hard to address those short term challenges rather than addressing the larger issue..

And, it all boils down to the fact that the leaders doesn't have sufficient knowledge to diagnose the  problem and organisations need to take the external help of consultants time & again to check their health and diagnose the problem correctly well in advance..

I can share two companies which went through this, one is an automobile company, where the applications changed and hence the products, but the company never rolled out the required new products for the new applications.The brand loyalty was so high that it kept losing very minimal market share with no loss in profitability inspite of not getting into new applications and when it realised, it was too late.

And there is a sanitaryware company which enjoyed very high market share, failed to notice its problems, because the competitors were into trouble for various reasons and it continued to enjoy good market share in spite of conservative outlook and policies.   And there is a free fall, the moment the competition fixed their issues..