What Leads to Business Failure?

Donald Keough’s book “The Ten Commandments for Business Failure” is an interesting, creditable book useful to Chief Executive Officers with a company culture that needs improvement. Donald Keough is the former President of The Coca-Cola Company.

The book is a short, easy read that covers all the elements of a positive culture. Some of it is self-evident. But if officers, second and third tier managers all read it, it would contribute to a re-focused culture. It would put everyone on the same page.

Commandments that lead to business failure:

One:
Quit Taking Risks

Two:
Be Inflexible

Three:
Isolate Yourself

Four:
Assume Infallibility

Five:
Play the Game Close to the Foul Line. (i.e., a culture of self-dealing and corruption.)

Six:
Don’t Take time to Think

Seven:
Put All Your Faith in Experts and Outside Consultants

Eight:
Love Your Bureaucracy

Nine:
Send Mixed Messages

Ten:
Be Afraid of the Future

Eleven*:
Lose Your Passion for Work – for Life

(*The title of the book is “Ten Commandments…”. Mr. Keough has included an Eleventh as “a little added bonus”.)