I came across this story from my TV news days. It’s about how business was booming roughly ten years ago for Krispy Kreme.
Back then, the franchise was rapidly expanding, America’s desire for sweets was seemingly neverending, and you would have been a fool not to buy company stock.
Today the Krispy Kreme stock is at a little over $9 a share. In its heyday, it was about $50. Countless stores are only a memory in communities.
Looking back, experts say the company expanded too fast, poor business decisions were made, and a scarce product became less popular when it became available everywhere.
Perhaps the biggest reason was a curveball. Americans suddenly became concerned about their health, doughnuts were revealed as being carbohydrate bombs, and the product became associated with excess.
Today the company does offer some health conscious doughnuts. But for many years, it kept doing business as usual. It was a bet that Krispy Kreme lost.
Usually signs of trouble do not appear overnight. But first leaders must be willing to admit that their success may last forever and may be built on a fad.
If you want to stick around, you need to Clear the Path of some old thinking. It takes a humble person to admit that success may be a fluke. But otherwise you shouldn’t be surprised when bad news comes and everyone has a glazed (doughnut) look on his or her face.
