Are you what you manage?

Jobs are not created equal. There are management jobs that are almost impossible to pull off, while others are a cakewalk. For example, I remember that during most of the 70s and 80s, Nordica ski boots were the easiest product to sell, to the point that many would say that even if a monkey were in charge of its US distribution, the American sales and marketing company would still do extremely well.

Of course it was the case of “it's the product stupid!” While most competitors were focused on performance and gimmicks, Nordica made boots that felt good on the foot and were always very comfortable. It all changed when Benetton purchased the company in the late 80's. They added skis, bindings, clothing a dubious marketing campaign and all this extra burden managed to screw up the entire brand.

This example goes a long way in demonstrating that if a company has a sound product, with at least one clear advantage, plus a decent organization it can ride the wave of success for a very long time. Of course, those at the head of these exemplary organization will tend to believe they're the very reason for this when in fact the business they think they run, operate in fact on automatic pilot.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, some companies are dysfunctional from the get go, either because the founder has no well-grounded common sense, there's no corporate vision, the efforts to grow the organization are sporadic and erratic, or the company is simply in reactive (catch-up) mode.

Acquisitions are always a big danger because they bring foreign, disruptive elements and generally are a huge distraction on a management that is used to run simple, predictable business models, but totally unable to deal with bad surprises, weird challenges and a constant need for repairs...