Live on Substack #3: Unmasking the Strategy Success Trap

Unmasking the Strategy Success Trap: Why Booms Lead to Busts! How should your company react to amazing success? Join us for a spirited conversation diagnosing the fatal strategic missteps of companies that went through unearned booms during COVID-19. We reveal why giants like Peloton and Fiverr abandoned their profitable, long-term business models to chase massive, temporary demand. We explore how this pursuit of tactical success led to impulsive, nearsighted decisions—such as Peloton becoming a capital-intensive manufacturing/logistics operation—which guaranteed a crash and painful layoffs. Discover the critical difference between “structural change” (permanent) and “cyclical noise” (temporary). Learn the essential discipline of long-term strategy. A sound strategy must act as a risk-management tool during good times, allowing companies like Amazon and Uber to leverage windfalls to build a lasting, sustainable advantage. True success is measured not by the peak of a boom, but by the depth of a normalization the company can survive. Prepare your company for the threat of a disruption brought about by success beyond its wildest dreams. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit longtermstrategy.substack.com/subscribeThe post Live on Substack #3: Unmasking the Strategy Success Trap first appeared on Long-Term Strategic Planning Conference 2026.