You’re waiting for everyone to agree: The hourglass doesn’t care

In a boardroom, an executive proposes a transformative change to a company's structure and strategy. However, the other executives, who built the company's stability, are hesitant to abandon the successful past. They request further study, input from the account teams, and caution against disrupting the current successful operations.

This scenario is repeated often enough that data reveals one in four founders changes their CEO by the time they raise a Series A, fewer than 40 percent by Series D, and more than half by Series C. This pattern is known as "stalling from strength," where companies struggle to adapt to growth due to their systems built for a previous phase.

Looking back at history, Kodak and Fujifilm provide examples of this phenomenon. Kodak, once a dominant player in the film market, failed to adapt to the digital age, leading to bankruptcy. Fujifilm, its counterpart in Japan, faced a similar crisis but successfully restructured its operations by closing film plants, redeploying employees, and cutting costs.

Despite both companies being aware of the impending shift, Kodak's executives continued to prioritize preserving the existing profitable past over the future, while Fujifilm's executives made a decisive move.

The author argues that consensus is a delaying tactic that can cause a company to stall. Instead, effective leadership involves setting a clear direction and time frame, even if it involves dissenting voices. An hourglass metaphor is used to illustrate this concept, where time is fixed, and some people adapt while others remain unchanged. The CEO's role is to set the hourglass and monitor who adjusts to the changing environment and who does not.

The question remains: is there an hourglass effect in your organization? Are leaders waiting for the room to agree, or has the board already started a search for a new leader? The author emphasizes that leadership should not focus on persuasion but rather setting a clear timeline and observing who adapts and who does not.