When a company reaches 10 years old, everyone thinks it is a symbol of sustainability. But the reality is the opposite. Many companies: once had an elite team, a respectable market share and a solid reputation, but disbanded at the time when they seemed most stable. Falling at the peak!
Why? Because they survived the stormy beginning, but failed at the seemingly smooth end.
There are deaths that are not noisy. No bankruptcy. No scandal. Just quietly disappear from the game.
10-year-old companies, once a source of pride, suddenly downsize, withdraw from the market, or are swallowed by a younger, faster, cheaper competitor.
The reason does not come from the market. Not necessarily from the product. But from within, from the old way of thinking that refuses to change.
Confidence kills sanity
When you’ve won big before – it’s easy to assume that the old formula will continue to work.
Many successful founders often fall into the “winner syndrome”: thinking that they understand the market, understand the customers, understand the team – better than anyone else.
And that’s when they start to… go blind.
Not updating the product. Not trying new channels. Not measuring consumer behavior.
Because “it worked back then, now we just need to do it better”.
While in reality: the market is not static, and customers change every day.
Organizational rut – losing flexibility
10 years of operation often comes with a dense system of processes and mechanisms. But the problem is that many mechanisms are… outdated.
The review process has too many layers. Decentralization is unclear. Leaders are no longer “close to the front”.
Some personnel have been in their positions for too long, no longer enthusiastic – but no one dares to replace them.
Startups are running on AI, real-time data.
And 10-year-old businesses are still sitting in weekly reports using Excel files since 2014.
When the new company operates according to the “space station” model, and you are still driving a “steamship” – the race is over before you know it.
Not daring to break away is also a form of falling into a rut and dying
When a company starts to stagnate, the first thing to do is to ask the core questions:
Are we still solving the right problem?
Do customers still see us the same way they did 5 years ago?
If we start over, what would we do differently?
But most people don’t dare to ask. Because if they answer – they will have to change.
And change means accepting to break what was once a source of pride: the main product, the organizational structure, the old brand, even themselves – the founder.
I once knew a company that was willing to spend 1 billion on advertising, but did not dare to try A/B testing a landing page worth 5 million. Because they “had run ads like this before and it worked”.
Out of Fire, But Don’t Dare to Admit It
Many founders after 10 years… are exhausted.
Tired, uninspired, disconnected from the team, and no longer interested in the industry.
But because of pride. Because of responsibility. Because they haven’t found anyone to replace them.
They continue to “steer”, even though in their hearts they just want to find a way out.
The team feels that indifference.
The market doesn’t wait for anyone.
So the company… dies in a way no one expected: dies because the leader is no longer true to himself.
So what is the way out?
There is no fixed formula. But there are 3 things that businesses that survive well after 10 years often do:
- Re-ask strategic questions every year, as if you were starting over.
- Always have new people join the board, bringing new perspectives, challenging old views.
- Have the courage to leave, if you feel you are no longer the right person to take the company further.
The 10-year mark is not a destination. It is the starting line of a different game – more rigorous, more sophisticated, and requiring you to be… a 2.0 version of yourself.
