All Gen X'ers probably remember the Happy Days episode where "The Fonz" jumps the shark whilst water-skiing wearing his signature leather jacket (yes, even when water skiing!).

This episode became renowned as a desperate attempt by the writers and producers of the show to maintain viewers interest. Given the Happy Days crew lived in the cold climes of Milwaukee and this episode was set in California, it was a tell-tale sign that the writers had run out of ideas.

This episode was seen by many as the moment it telegraphed it's decline.

Just like Happy Days did, companies have their very own "Jump the Shark" moments where employees collectively go "what the....!!" and it's all downhill from there.

These are moments when the company strays from its original vision, compromises its values and in simple terms does some pretty dumb things. Tanking of the business then ensues rapidly.

Such pivotal moments may be when:

After mass lay offs and redundancies based on a new "lean" but forward looking approach an ASX announcement detailing the award of a $1.5M annual bonus to the CEO is followed by one in which he/she has just cashed in 4 million share options. He is then unavailable for the next 8 weeks, holidaying in the Maldives and taking some time off caring for alpacas on his hobby farm
The Managing Director appoints his son as the new CFO of the company. The same son who failed to complete year 11 (he got kicked out for dealing ecstasy) and whose last role was a 3 month stint as Marketing Manager of a nightclub in Seminyak
A toxic and poisonous executive director (insert department) who has done more than anyone else to destabilise the business through "House of Cards" backstabbing, manages to wrangle himself a massive "out of policy" redundancy pay. He returns the following day as a $2,000 per day consultant with even less checks and balances on his behaviour. His smirk arrives half an hour before he does
A senior executive of the company gets angrier about the removal of free muffins at morning tea each Thursday than the fact that the whole company's profits have nosedived and it is on the brink of receivership
A toxic manager who has helped destroy the business through his behaviour is kept on because he "knows where all the skeletons are"
You hear the mail delivery guy and the receptionist whispering to each other and they momentarily stop when you walk past
You ring the special Whistleblower hotline and the Director who you are blowing the whistle on answers the phone
You play bullshit buzzword bingo at every meeting and you snigger every time you hear - “let’s take this offline”, “low hanging fruit”, “let’s socialise this”, “touch base”, “open door policy”, “helicopter view” and my favourite of all time - “not enough bandwidth”.

You get the idea. The key for any business is to maintain the focus on why it was set up in the first place and remain true to it's values, which simply can not be compromised or altered to suit circumstances.

The moment that self interest, hypocrisy and power plays become more important than the business's vision, values and it's "product" is the moment that the CEO and the board have donned the water skis.

When your Company has Jumped the Shark

All Gen X'ers probably remember the Happy Days episode where "The Fonz" jumps the shark whilst water-skiing wearing his signature leather jacket (yes, even when water skiing!).

This episode became renowned as a desperate attempt by the writers and producers of the show to maintain viewers interest. Given the Happy Days crew lived in the cold climes of Milwaukee and this episode was set in California, it was a tell-tale sign that the writers had run out of ideas.

This episode was seen by many as the moment it telegraphed it's decline.

Just like Happy Days did, companies have their very own "Jump the Shark" moments where employees collectively go "what the....!!" and it's all downhill from there.

These are moments when the company strays from its original vision, compromises its values and in simple terms does some pretty dumb things. Tanking of the business then ensues rapidly.

Such pivotal moments may be when:

The Managing Director appoints his son as the new CFO of the company. The same son who failed to complete year 11 (he got kicked out for dealing ecstasy) and whose last role was a 3 month stint as Marketing Manager of a nightclub in Seminyak

A senior executive of the company gets angrier about the removal of free muffins at morning tea each Thursday than the fact that the whole company's profits have nosedived and it is on the brink of receivership

A toxic manager who has helped destroy the business through his behaviour is kept on because he "knows where all the skeletons are"

You hear the mail delivery guy and the receptionist whispering to each other and they momentarily stop when you walk past

You ring the special Whistleblower hotline and the Director who you are blowing the whistle on answers the phone

You play bullshit buzzword bingo at every meeting and you snigger every time you hear - “let’s take this offline”, “low hanging fruit”, “let’s socialise this”, “touch base”, “open door policy”, “helicopter view” and my favourite of all time - “not enough bandwidth”.

You get the idea. The key for any business is to maintain the focus on why it was set up in the first place and remain true to it's values, which simply can not be compromised or altered to suit circumstances.

The moment that self interest, hypocrisy and power plays become more important than the business's vision, values and it's "product" is the moment that the CEO and the board have donned the water skis.