Why Direct Sales Companies Fail...and most others!

The reason many direct sales companies fail is lack of leadership.  Companies, especially in this industry, need CEOs that provide direction, vision, clarity, charismatic leadership with strong values and character, and the ability to lead, inspire, and get the job done.  Find someone that can do that who is also innovative enough to create the "iPod" for your industry and you have a winner, a champion that can capture future market opportunity and take your inferior legacy products and assets and turn them into cutting-edge, market-disrupting icons of an industry.

So many people today wouldn't recognize real leadership if it smacked them upside the face.  They have seen such atrocious behavior from individuals with the CEO title that they believe that is what leadership is.  So when a true leader comes along, they don't know how to handle them.  They aren't used to being with someone that demands excellence all the time.  They aren't used to a leader that sets the bar high and demands results.  Without even knowing it, they would rather remain the small, unknown entity that they are rather than step up their game to face and outperform competitors. In the face of competitive resistance, they cower down, running back to their cave to hide as opposed to being proud of their products and championing them in the marketplace.  

There are a lot of reasons companies fail, but one sure-fire way to kill any organization is to get rid of a strong leader.  This is why so many companies and sports programs are not as successful as they could be.  The average tenure for a CEO is 16 months - that's hardly enough time to find out where the bathroom is!  This statistic also mirrors college football coaching and other sports.  Real leaders love other strong leaders.  Non-existent leaders, however, are scared to death of real leaders because they constantly feel threatened at the possibility of being exposed as the incompetent leader they are.

So here's the deal.  Next time you're lucky enough to land an outstanding leader, don't be an idiot.  Do whatever you have to do to keep them.  If they're a genuine leader, they are used to problems.  They don't expect everything to be rosy, but they will lead you through the dark days that others are completely incapable of doing.

RR2