An apple hanging on a tree. It sits there alone, ripening as each day passes. If we were to pluck it while it is still ripening, it would be too sour to enjoy because we have not allowed it to mature and sweeten. If we pluck it when it reaches maturity and has fully ripened, it will burst with taste and succulence when we eat it. However, if it stays on the tree longer than it should, it will shrivel up and die because the sweetness has overcome the apple and the maturing process was not stopped. For the apple tree, this is good because this is the way its seeds get spread. For the person who would like to enjoy the apple, this is not so good. Worse than that, the apple, as it matures, produces chemicals that induce the other apples on the tree to also over ripen. Thus, this one old apple helps generate more old apples. The result is an apple tree full of dying apples hanging on the tree.

When most companies start off, they are usually started by young entrepreneurs who are too young to be restricted by the box mentality that older people are trapped within. For these young, up and coming minds, the paper has no lines on it so everything is possible. They experiment and dare to risk it all. They dare to challenge the norm and make things happen. Unfortunately for them, they do not know what perils exist out there because they have yet to experience them. But this is good since they might never encounter these perils so why restrict themselves? Moreover, these young bucks are more likely then not to surround themselves with like minded people of their age who are willing to strive in the same adventure that they are embarking on. For them, it is the spirit of exploration that matters more than anything else. Reason be damned. A strong will, the ability to read adjust to circumstances and the ability to take failure in stride are more important than avoiding the failure to begin with. Consequently young companies make more mistakes than you can count but the good ones prosper. The really great ones become the Googles and Walmarts of the world.

As these companies grow, a large, but ever so subtle, change starts to take hold within. These same, free-willing companies start to embed structure into the game plan. They slowly start to protect their hard earned gains by posting guards around their victories. This is usually in the form of more experienced, if not wiser, people who help build fences around their spoils of war. A new word starts to creep into their vocabulary and into their minds—protect. This translates to fear. At this stage, they can’t see this happening but rest assured the transformation is taking place. Fear means that these same people who once, threw caution at the wind, are slowly accepting that, perhaps, just perhaps, they need to secure what they have fought hard for and won. Perhaps, they don’t have to be so gong-ho about pushing the envelope further and start accepting the fact that they are maturing. They are reaching a sweet spot where they can now start to milk the proverbial cow. What they are not realizing is that the lines, on the once empty paper, are taking a more solid form. They are no longer willing to risk it all.

This company now starts to form its own culture and promotes it quite heavily within the organization. They do this even though this is putting the death nail into its own coffin. This starts to kill the one thing that made it great—entrepreneurship. The older generation, fearful that their way of life will erode, do all that they can to sabotage the young people coming into the company, hoping to revive what was once a great place to create. Conformity takes precedence over creativity because the older people who found the company are still at the helm reliving their days of glory. They stamp out any non-conformity because it threatens them. They make it quite clear that their rule is the law even though it will lead to the path of destruction. Then they commit the last heroic act in their minds by staying on because they believe that only they have the magic that could make the company great again. Why not, they suppose? Was it not them who made this all happen in the first place? Was it not their ability to risk it all to get it all? Who are these young people who are going to emulate the greatness that they accomplished? In essence, they create a self-fulfilling prophecy of destruction. They are finished and they will finish anyone who is foolish enough to stay in this environment.

Like the spoiling apple on the tree, they exude death causing those around them to die. They only way to save the company is to remove them. The only question is, “When?” The answer to this question can only be what the stakeholders allow. If a company is to grow, it must be prepared to shed the old and allow the new to revive it. Mind you, the best anyone who cares for his/her company can do for the company is to know when is the right time to leave.