5¼ More Reasons That A Content Management Company Will Go Out Of Business

I seemed to have touched a nerve in my recent entry about the top five reasons a content management company will go out of business, judging by the feedback received via e-mail, tweets, IM, and the blog.My wife helped me compile the original list based on comments that she says I've repeatedly made over the dinner table. While I'm a little surprised that she was actually listening, she was surprised that companies could make the same mistakes over and over.

The next five reasons on my list come from an ECM executive who asked to remain anonymous because he said it would be too obvious which company he's talking about, and he's already been accused of having a bad attitude. Because that was such an interesting comment, I've decided to add it in as reason 5-1/2 that a content management company will go out of business:

5-1/2: When someone suggests you have a problem, you accuse them of having a bad attitude. I know the company is your baby, your sweat, your dreams. But the first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem. Most people do not want you to fail, especially if you're providing their paycheck. Pause, listen, count to 10 and then try to fix the problem.

The next five reasons were suggested by Mr. Anonymous:

6: You change your model, and abandon your network. One fine morning you wake up and decide that your future is in professional services, and that the partners who have built your customer base for you are just stupid little companies that no one will miss.

7: You change your model without making the appropriate employee staff increases and investment. In spite of #6, you decide that your marketing and professional services people are too valuable to spend time helping your sales force sell product. You try to convince your partners that your professional services organization really isn't a threat to them and that you need your partners to do all of your proposing and demonstrations for you. You hope that your partners won't notice the disparity between #6 and #7.

8: You decide that your ownership of the desktop is just too important to be traded away, and users aren't going to adopt SharePoint because Microsoft can't be trusted and real companies don't use SharePoint.

9: You believe that your customers are locked into your products, because so many of their strategic business processes use your tools. Your customers would never replace someone who has sent them as many Christmas cards as you have.

10: You believe all the things in your press releases, because you like the way the people who write them dress and they use real URLs inside of text.

Keep'em coming.