Refounding
Brilliant Business Move Or Another Rebranding Of Leadership Failures?
Hey Seekers!
Welcome to Today’s Edition of the Seeking Sageship Newsletter!
Your Daily Guidance to Go Beyond Leadership!
All Subscribers have Access to the Free Section…
1%+ Compounded Improvement in 1% of Your Time Maximum!
Plus, a Preview of the “Psychophysiological Freedom” Paid Section Is Available!
Let’s Dive In…
Refounding
Brilliant Business Move Or Another Rebranding Of Leadership Failures?
It’s that time again...
Another “Business Buzzword” has entered the scene.
Every time I see a new one...
I am always hit with a mix of excitement...
And utter worry.
Why?
Some of the time, there are some really important concepts that get recognized...
Which can create meaningful changes in work.
This is what happened when Emotional Intelligence became largely recognized and applied in the business world.
But the vast majority of the time...
The outcome is different.
Often, Buzzwords are just rebranding something to “appear” different...
While really changing nothing...
Usually, as a mechanism to hide Leadership Failures or make them appear less horrible.
We saw this with the “Serendipity of Ideas” movement, which was just a Rebranding for Return-to-Office “Mandates”...
That made no sense when you considered any aspect of reality...
And to this day shows the backwards thinking of the vast majority of leaders.
We also saw this with the term “Quiet Cracking,” which was just a way to say “Early Burnout”...
And to minimize the fact that over 80% of the workforce was already “in” Burnout, with the statistics indicating that it will continue to become worse...
Because most Leaders have policies that directly go against human psychophysiology, making the result inevitable.
This brings us to our newest “Business Buzzword”...
Refounding.
Before we determine if it is a brilliant business move or another rebranding of leadership failures...
Let’s go over what it actually is.
The act of Refounding can have one of two goals...
Or both simultaneously.
One of the goals is the idea of getting back to the founding principles of an organization that had made it successful.
An example of this would be Starbucks’ decision to move away from optimizing for drive-through...
And get back to being an experiential place and a “third place” for people, which is a large part of what made them successful.
It can also be a call to get back to a business culture that the organization had at one point, but had strayed from as it grew.
This goal of refounding is based on the idea of “going back”, usually to what was considered a form of “golden age” for an organization.
The second potential goal is the idea that, as the world changes, an organization may be required to change the core of its business to meet the new demands.
An example here would be Netflix, which started as a DVD Rental-By-Mail company, but redefined itself into an Internet Streaming Company.
This goal of refounding is to fundamentally change the core of the business into something new based on the demands of the future.
In some cases, the organization that is refounding seeks both of these goals at the same time...
Redefining the core of their business while also getting back to principles that had made them successful in the first place.
So...
Is Refounding a brilliant business move?
Or is it just another rebranding of leadership failures?
The answer...
Is that it depends.
Can Refounding be a brilliant business move?
Absolutely.
Netflix is a perfect example where, by Refounding into an Internet Streaming Company, they went from barely being a footnote to Blockbuster’s dominance...
To redefining media and making every other media company question their business models.
There are also times when a company makes changes to its business which they believe will be beneficial...
And it does not work out.
We are all human, and leaders do make mistakes.
One could argue that this is what happened with Disney, where the direction of Disney changed with Bob Chapek becoming CEO between 2020 and 2022...
But the direction went over so badly with audiences that Chapek was ousted...
And the previous CEO, Bob Iger, was brought back to Refound Disney back into what had made them successful.
Based on stock prices, it seems that the strategy has the ship around as stock prices have been trending upward since 2022.
So there are arguments to say that the idea of Refounding can be a brilliant business move.
But...
I would argue that, far more often, leaders are utilizing the term as a way to rebrand their leadership failures...
Or pushing for Refounding has been detrimental to the business.
Let’s take the first goal...
Moving a company back to principles and a culture that had originally created their success.
How does a company move away from its founding principles and culture?
Leadership failures...
Particularly, it is “how” leaders “act”.
It could be the leader who oversees the entire company...
Or it could be shaped by poor choices in promoting leaders...
Who were chosen by higher-level leaders.
Principles must be “lived”...
Culture is shaped by “actions”...
So when leaders fail to live the principles and culture...
The principles and culture change...
And attempting to “Refound” the company without actually “living” the changes is simply a rebranding of leadership failures...
One we have seen many times without any real results.
We have also seen companies refound themselves, and it did not work out at all...
Such as Facebook deciding that the Metaverse was so iconically necessary to the future that they changed their name to Meta.
The result?
Today, Meta’s Metaverse division has been dramatically cut, and is known for being a gigantic loss of revenue...
With no current visible path to widespread adoption...
And with the focus changing to Artificial Intelligence.
Which brings us to another leadership failure that is just another form of rebranding...
The idea of Refounding to adapt to changing times “can” be a brilliant business move...
If you are the company that redefines the market like Netflix.
But...
If you are “forced” into Refounding because the world changes and you are “behind” on the changes...
Then this is simply a rebranding of leadership failures...
As we have dramatically seen around Artificial Adoption.
When an overwhelming number of shareholders determined that AI was the future...
Which some people still believe is very debatable...
How many businesses suddenly decided that they, too, were going to be “centered” around AI?
Far too many.
These were not purposeful, brilliant strategic moves in business...
These were leaders who were terrified that they were so far behind in the trends for the future that they would be considered incompetent in seeing the future...
And so they reacted in hopes that it was not “too late”.
The result?
Many businesses are competing on “appearing” that they are ahead when it comes to AI...
While simultaneously, AI has not been providing meaningful revenue for any organization...
Not as a product...
Not as AI agents...
Not as a required part of processes.
Across the board, we have seen AI Products fail to bring revenue...
AI Agents fail to be anywhere near as competent as employees...
And AI Processes fail so terribly that most are being abandoned...
While leaders are also making claims that their most recent staff cuts have been based on “advances” with AI...
Which is a very clear and flat-out lie...
Another rebranding of leadership failures, as all layoffs truly are.
At the end of the day...
Refounding can and has been a brilliant business move in certain specific situations...
But the vast majority of cases of refounding are proof of leadership failures...
Rebranded in a way to make their failures sound like purposeful decisions...
But it is just a common deception that has been used in the Cult of the CEO for decades.
If you hear the buzzword of Refounding...
Pay attention...
Because the likely scenario is that it is a cover for leadership failures.
Those Who Seek Sageship Also Cultivate Others!
Share this Article Today With Someone Who Needs It and Earn Exclusive Rewards!
Are You Ready To Become A Sage?
Paid Subscribers will Gain ‘Exclusive’ Access to…
Read the Entire “Psychophysiology Freedom” Deep Dive Section for Exponential Results
Access to the “Full” Paid Archive (Check Out the Cultivation Center for More)
Connect Further in the “Subscriber Only” Chat & Comments Section
“Directly” Impact Regenerative Projects around the Globe
With “More” Coming In The Future…
It’s Time to Change The World!
Psychophysiological Freedom
For Paid Subscribers
So, how do we go about being on the right side of refounding…
Instead of getting pushed into using the idea of refounding as a buzzword for our mistakes?
That is what we will look at next.
I have 5 Precepts to stay on the right side of refounding.
Let’s dive in…
