As an investor, you want the companies you buy to be vibrant and heading toward a shared better future.

As an employee, you want to know that the company aspires to something more and has plans to get there.

In either case there are signs you can observe in the corporate environment to help discern whether things are looking up and there is hope or whether things are in a spiral and it may be a dead end.

If the company has these signs it could spell trouble:

1. Stopped investing in personal development and growth

Learning, adapting and growing is the only antidote to a rapidly changing workplace landscape. It is a crucial way to retain the ability to be competitive in the future. Corporate training, personal development and the encouragement to pursue growth are signs a company is looking to the future and has hope.  Without training and development your skills will slowly become irrelevant. Without a corporate growth culture, the company will stagnate, and be ripe for disruption  from more forward-thinking and engaged competitors.

2. Stopped vision casting, strategic planning and setting goals

Vision and strategy to get there are also forward looking. A clear and well communicated vision of the future is a unifying force in a company, getting everyone on the same page. Strategy and goals allow you to focus the energy of hope in the areas that best achieve the vision. Goals and strategies allow you to say “no” to the other, potentially good activities, that don’t most fully help the company realize the vision. If the company has no vision casting, or strategy discussion, it is a tacit admission that the future looks dim. For no company can continue to exist by simply repeating what they have done in the past. Jim Collins covers this and other corporate killing behaviors in “How the mighty fall“.

3. Stopped analyzing failures and learning from them

Every failure is an opportunity to learn. If your company is not taking the time to ask the why questions surrounding any company ‘failure’ it is neglecting one of the most direct sources of learning and growth available. As the folks over at isixsigma.com state:

“By repeatedly asking the question “Why” (five is a good rule of thumb), you can peel away the layers of symptoms which can lead to the root cause of a problem. “

By understanding root causes, we can make changes to correct, improve and grow. When this process stops, improvement, and growth stop as well.

4. Stopped experimenting

Experimenting, and the the learning that takes place from it, are paths to future products, services and improved customer experiences. Experimentation is the path to discovery. Experimenting is planting seeds for future ideas. Without experimentation you eliminate a key source of corporate learning. Without corporate learning is will be impossible for your company to keep up and competitive in a fast changing market. The market you serve will evolve and change leaving you behind with your antiquated products and services and no one wants to buy.

5. Stopped listening to customers

With today’s search capability, social sharing and ubiquitous smart phone presence consumers can instantly access real time information about your product or service. This can include reviews, comments, social shares and other information. It is easy for a consumer to find out more about your product than you know. The users of products and services are willing to share feedback as well. This feedback is extremely valuable in product development and service adaptation. Customers will reveal what they need and will pay for if you ask the right questions. Companies that stop this process (or ignore it) are refusing to set themselves up for future success with their customer base. Opening the door wide for competitors who will.

6. Stopped working at employee retention

The real asset most companies have, that doesn’t show up on the balance sheet, is the employee base that shows up and do their job in a competent, efficient manner. The consistent commitment to show up and do their job is what moves a company forward. If all the employees stopped doing that, any business would fold like a garage sale lawn chair. Recognition of this fact, and the commensurate application of retention programs for key positions is important to the future continuity and growth of any company. Companies who don’t value the employee base are not valuing their own future prospects.

7. Stopped focusing on workplace culture

As Peter Druker is famously remembered as saying “Culture eats strategy for breakfast”. A great workplace culture is the lubricant of employee commitment and engagement. If the culture is poisonous or corrosive, or just simply ignored, it will impact engagement, commitment, and implicitly, business results. Culture has to be nurtured and maintained. Stopping the care-taking of the culture is akin to not cleaning the fish tank. Pretty soon it gets unbearable (and kills the fish).

8. Stopped showing thanks and appreciation to employees

Sincere thanks and appreciation from company leadership can be more motivating than monetary reward. We all want to be appreciated and recognized for the contributions we make. In companies where this is not the practice it makes the grass look a lot greener elsewhere.

9. Stopped watching for disruption

Disruption can happen at astounding scale and speed. I talked about my take-aways from Big Bang Disruption where whole industries can be disrupted with breath-taking speed. A company must be always on the lookout for up and coming technologies and companies that would potentially pose a threat. This examination must be part of their planning cycle and strategy discussions.  If you stop the vigilant examination of your industry and its periphery you invite the surprise of your industry changing underneath you and your company having no response.

10. Stopped communicating and serving

If your company leadership is not engaging in communication and re-iterating the vision and culture and discussing openly the challenges and opportunities of the business, that is a clear sign that something is amiss. Either it means they have nothing to communicate, or what they have to communicate is bad and they can’t bring themselves to deliver the message. Both are huge red flag indicators.

 

Most of these are easy to spot and all of them are correctable with diligent, committed and wise leadership. Without that, you may be on the way to another dead end.