Aristocracy Not making waves becomes a way of life. The organization acquires companies rather than incubating startup businesses. Its culture emphasizes how things are done over what's being done and why people are doing it. The company appears to be stalling, and the organization's leaders rely on the past to carry them into the future. In this stage of decay, the company conducts witch hunts to find out who did wrong rather than trying to discover what went wrong and how to fix it.
Cost reductions take precedence over efforts to increase revenues.
The reason for this behavior seems to be that it's easier to see how cutting costs improves the bottom line. Back-stabbing and corporate infighting rule at this stage. Executives fight to protect their turf, isolating themselves from their fellow executives and demonizing their customers. Petty jealousies reign supreme. If the organization did not die during the previous stage, it becomes bureaucratized either because it is politically protected or because it survives in a regulated environment.