Much has been written about the difficulty of successful companies thriving in the second and third generations. The same logic holds true for the age of COVID-19. Companies would do well to revisit the founder mentality and get back to their entrepreneurial roots.

Many successful founders intuitively reinvent their business as they grow. They work crazy long hours to make their ideas come to life. They sacrifice of themselves. They're scrappy and scramble to take advantage of changes in the marketplace. And they jettison ideas that don't work in order to focus on what does.

Second and third generation leaders are often not scramblers. They focus on managing versus growing, they try to cut their way to profit when things get bad and, worse, believe that the one or two big clients that saved them in years past will save them forever. They feel a sense of entitlement to the spoils of success and blame others for the lack of growth or development. Soon enough the company crashes, fades away, or capitulates to a buyout.

In these days of quarantines, company leaders need to think like founders. Because we're all reinventing the future in real-time.

If you need help rethinking your future, let's talk.