Wow, what a question. Phil can you rephrase that, because there is more to this than what stage is anyones business at when using the article. Maybe a lot of people will not get what you are saying... oh yea that's right you can't see my post.....
The article fits into expediting but not as an indication of failures but as direct indications of the schools of thought on how to run a business and what impacts us, what we can control and what we can't control and more so what divides us.
STAGE 1: HUBRIS BORN OF SUCCESS
Great enterprises can become insulated by success; accumulated momentum can carry an enterprise forward for a while, even if its leaders make poor decisions or lose discipline. Stage 1 kicks in when people become arrogant, regarding success virtually as an entitlement, and they lose sight of the true underlying factors that created success in the first place. When the rhetoric of success ("We're successful because we do these specific things") replaces penetrating understanding and insight ("We're successful because we understand why we do these specific things and under what conditions they would no longer work"), decline will very likely follow. Luck and chance play a role in many successful outcomes, and those who fail to acknowledge the role luck may have played in their success—and thereby overestimate their own merit and capabilities—have succumbed to hubris.
The best leaders we've studied never presume they've reached ultimate understanding of all the factors that brought them success. For one thing, they retain a somewhat irrational fear that perhaps their success stems in large part from fortuitous circumstance. Suppose you discount your own success ("We might have been just really lucky/were in the right place at the right time/have been living off momentum/have been operating without serious competition") and thereby worry incessantly about how to make yourself stronger and better-positioned for the day your good luck runs out. What's the downside if you're wrong? Minimal: If you're wrong, you'll just be that much stronger by virtue of your disciplined approach. But suppose instead you succumb to hubris and attribute success to your own superior qualities ("We deserve success because we're so good/so smart/so innovative/so amazing"). What's the downside if you're wrong? Significant. You just might find yourself surprised and unprepared when you wake up to discover your vulnerabilities too late.
I highlighted the important points which makes me think that the rash of
high level thinking threads about the industry decline, telling the CEOs what needs to be done and so on has nothing to do with the actual industry but with the person starting them, Phil. He may be seeing declines in the rates for special trucks. I do attribute that to the contraction of budgets and the more sensible management techniques within the companies that need specialized handled freight and reaching out to more competitive companies.
But I digress....I honestly think the "Message to the CEO" thread is a good start to vent to those who have to worry about how to stay in business but without understanding what is going on through experience of climbing the ladder in this niche market, the premise of telling the CEOs not to worry about market share is misplace because the use of the words “high value freight” all which indicates a problem that Phil hasn't seen the rates he expects to see or are seeing rates we all have been seeing for a while.
I have said to Phil before he has decided to put me on the ignore list that he has to start from the bottom to understand what we who started at the bottom actually go through to become successful. I have suggested that he gets himself out of the truck, go work for Panther, LEAM and maybe others to understand the company and the real market outside of FedEx WG before telling us what we need to know to run our business or what the future is going to be like in this industry - that is backed up by "Great enterprises can become insulated by success..." and "the rhetoric of success ("We're successful because we do these specific things").
