Maybe you'd name a couple of the new potholes in the road to glory, like technological change that's so rapid and unpredictable that some companies just can't keep up with either their competitors or their customers. Success, after all, is like any other fundamental change in a company's operating condition. When it comes, the business and those running it have to change, too. Usually it's the shock of the transformation from a mom 'n pop shop to a larger and more complex company. On the management side, if systems and controls aren't upgraded to meet the demands of increased business volume, more payables and receivables, larger debt service and inventory, unpleasant things begin to happen.
Operations get sluggish, then unresponsive, then downright unworkable.
The next thing you know, customers are bailing out as the whole shebang goes into a dive. On the human side, success usually means the informality that's so characteristic of smaller entrepreneurial and family-owned businesses has to give way to structure and accountability. Family and non-family employees have to have job descriptions, even titles. When a family business succeeds, its character can't be so easily defined by the senior owner's personality, quirks and preferences. Sure, old Hughie's grinning mug still decorates the newspaper ads and the big sign in front of the store.