Inertia of Success

One-line definition: Grove’s name for the phenomenon where leaders keep running the plays that won their “championship season” — because they got selected for excellence in the old way, the same success that put them at the top retards their ability to see the new trend. — Only the Paranoid Survive

How sources describe it

• “Senior managers got to where they are by having been good at what they do… it’s not surprising that they will keep implementing the same strategic and tactical moves that worked for them during the course of their careers… I call this phenomenon the inertia of success. It is extremely dangerous and it can reinforce denial.” (Only the Paranoid Survive)
• Kyle’s shorthand note on this passage: “SALY principle” (same-as-last-year).
• Grove extends the idea to individual careers, not just companies: believing “it may happen to others but not to me” is “the equivalent of the ‘inertia of success’ that dogs companies which have done well” — career inflection points don’t spare people for their individual excellence.

Where it shows up

• Only the Paranoid Survive — introduced via IBM and other incumbents who couldn’t adapt once their industry structure broke.

Related concepts

• Strategic Inflection Point — the change that inertia of success blinds leaders to.
• Cassandras — the counter-signal that inertia of success causes leadership to discount.