Organizational Complexity

A third consistent element of peaks is oversized organizational complexity. Whether it is through excessively large acquisitions, broad geographic expansion, or the addition of non-strategic businesses (where management and the board has no expertise), at the top, companies consistently display a Manifest Destiny–like need to be bigger and more far-reaching than ever. (And yes, journalist John O’Sullivan’s introduction of the term Manifest Destiny in 1845 coincides very nicely with the ending of a bull market that started at the end of the War of 1812.) And so that it is said, mergers of equals, with their “I’m so confident that we can even be co-CEOs—literally ‘us, everywhere, forever’” sentiment, are almost universally some of the most i....