The Tribal Compass

The business run not on strategy or customer insight or market research but on who the owner likes, who they trust and who belongs to their inner circle.

Good ideas from outside the circle get ignored regardless of their quality. Bad ideas from inside the circle get funded regardless of their cost. People who perform get overlooked if they aren't in the tribe. People who challenge the hierarchy get managed out regardless of what they are right about.

A vending machine company with a genuinely good product and a real opportunity in front of it. The owner let tribal hierarchy be his compass for every significant decision. The org chart mapped loyalty rather than competence. The product had genuine potential. The tribal compass made it irrelevant.

Recognized by the organization that stops attracting good people because good people figure out quickly that the game isn't being played on merit. Recognized by the inner circle that gets smaller and more insular as the business gets bigger.