When you think of companies like Nortel, Enron, Blackberry, and Blockbuster, companies that were having tremendous success and then failed, there are only a few reasons why the sudden decline.

• Arrogance and/or stubbornness – The organization and its leaders believed that continuing to operate the same way would lead to continued success. They refused to change the way they operated.
• Inability to take advantage of new opportunities – The organization was either unable to see new opportunities or not flexible enough to take advantage of them.
• Increased distance from customers – The organization created too wide a gap between itself and its customers and wasn’t able to anticipate what customers wanted or needed.
• Misalignment of strategy and tactics – The tactics being performed on the front lines of the organization did not align with the strategy being developed in the executive boardroom.
• Greed – The organization’s leaders focused too much on creating money and power for themselves and not enough on creating value for customers.

Just avoid these five things and you will see continued success in your organization and operational excellence will come naturally.