Percy Spencer was supposed to be a complete failure in life. His father worked in a sawmill, until he tragically died in a freak accident when Percy was a toddler. His mother soon left him an orphan.
But Percy’s uncle took a liking to him and took him in, and he developed a special bond with him… until he died when Percy was only seven. Then Percy was forced to drop out of school in the fourth grade to support the family. His days were 14-hour work-a-thons at the spool mill. And yet, in spite of all that, Percy taught himself math and science. He co-founded a defense contractor company. And he went on to invent the microwave.
In the book Succeeding When You’re Supposed To Fail, Rom Brafman examines the lives of people like Percy and others who had no reason to succeed but, in spite of all odds, did. It is a fascinating look into the socio-psychological factors that cause people to be successful when they are supposed to fail.
(This subject fascinates me. How is it that two people with the same socio-economic backgrounds can be so vastly different in the workplace? The airlines are a great example of this. I have been on many planes and seen two flight attendants on the same flight with vastly different attitudes. One has a terrific attitude while the other is a wombat in the air. And yet they work for the same company, for the same supervisor, under the same working conditions, and probably for the same compensation. Though my analysis of this phenomenon is much more fundamental: By the time you or I get them as an employee, they are what they are.)
But, as the title here indicates, I am more concerned about people and companies that are supposed to succeed, but fail instead. Are you one of those? Is everything just rosy with your company? Are you the darlings of the Inc. 500 set? Can you do no wrong? Well, you might be one of those companies that are about to fail, even though you are supposed to succeed and indeed have been wildly successful thus far. Beware the silent business killers.
Stone Equipment Company was just one of those companies. Starting from practically nothing, this privately held company bootstrapped its way to $55 million at its peak. And then it crashed and burned during the recession of 2009. Stone failed when it was supposed to succeed.
Stone made all the right moves: an enlightened management team, an engaged board, a thorough and comprehensive management succession plan, and a self-directed workforce; and it was 100 percent employee owned through an ESOP. How could this happen?
They succumbed to Silent Business Killer #1: thinking life is great when it is not. Are you guilty of this? Do you think life in your business is great when it really isn’t? Many CEO’s delude themselves by thinking the absence of symptoms means the absence of business illness. It does not. Just like many silent health killers, silent business killers remain hidden, under the surface, until they strike at the very heart of the business. And when they do, just like terminal cancer, it is too late to save your company.
So let’s go back to Stone. How is it possible they didn’t survive the recession? Could it be they didn’t see the recession coming? That seems unlikely, unless they weren’t watching for it. If they’d been planning for a recession, they would have battened down the hatches and prepared to take on water. That’s what I did. I was watching for it, and at the first sign of the top line softening, I launched an aggressive cost cutting plan that was in the can and ready to go when I needed it.
Can this happen to your company? If it can happen to Stone, it can happen to any company. And it happened faster than anyone could have imagined, practically overnight. One minute Stone was a vibrant, growing $55 million company; the next minute, the banks were shutting them down. They didn’t keep their eye on the ball of today.
I once had a boss who liked to live in the future—big picture guy, always looking to the long term. Just remember this: in the long term, we are all dead. If you take care of the business of today—and that means watch it like a hawk—you will have a long term.
