Kodak invented the digital camera in 1975, then spent 30 years protecting film technology until bankruptcy in 2012. They literally invented the future and ignored it to death because their innovation echo chamber convinced them that incremental improvements to dying technology were revolutionary breakthroughs. That's not innovation—that's institutional insanity in a three-piece suit.

The Pathetic Pattern of Self-Deception

Companies gather their smartest people in conference rooms, congratulate each other on tiny tweaks, and convince themselves they're innovation leaders while their industry transforms around them.

One automotive company spent five years making their navigation system 10% faster while Tesla reimagined the entire driving experience. They held innovation celebrations for shaving 2 seconds off boot time while competitors made cars that updated themselves overnight and drove themselves around town.

Throughout the 1990s, Kodak celebrated faster film processing and better color reproduction. Meanwhile, the world went digital using technology Kodak invented. Their teams were so busy high-fiving over film improvements, they couldn't hear the funeral march for their entire industry.

Here's how echo chambers work: everyone has incentives to agree. Innovation teams want to justify their existence. Executives want good news. Board members want to believe strategy works. Challenging voices get silenced or ejected.

The really repulsive result? Echo chambers don't just miss innovations—they actively resist them. "That's not how we do things." "Our customers don't want that." The echo chamber becomes an isolation chamber protecting companies from progress.

What You'll Learn in This Episode

Todd Hagopian reveals Systematic Orthodoxy Smashing. Stop asking "how can we improve" and start asking "what if everyone is wrong."

You'll discover how Method cleaning products built a $100 million brand by questioning the orthodoxy that eco-friendly cleaners couldn't work as well as harsh chemicals.

You'll learn King Arthur Flour's Sequential Breakthrough Technique—breaking the "flour is a commodity" orthodoxy, then breaking "flour companies just sell flour" by adding expertise, recipes, and community. Each broken orthodoxy revealed new opportunities.

You'll also get the Seven Laws of Orthodoxy Smashing: hidden opportunities lie behind accepted beliefs, resistance increases with orthodoxy age, and small teams smash orthodoxies better than big ones.

Your Assignment

List five truths everyone in your industry accepts. Imagine a competitor who believes the opposite of each. What would they build? How would they win?

Visit https://stagnationassassins.com and Declare WAR on Stagnation.

About The Podcaster

Todd Hagopian has led five corporate transformations generating $2B+ in shareholder value. Author of The Unfair Advantage (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FV6QMWBX). Featured 30+ times on Forbes.com, Fox Business, and NPR.

The exact skills that got you promoted are now your career's ticking time bomb. Around 70% of executives fail not from lacking strengths, but because their greatest strength became their fatal weakness.

Your meticulous attention to detail that made you a superstar analyst? It's now blinding you to big-picture opportunities. That decisive leadership that rocketed your rise? It's morphed into dictatorial deafness destroying your team.

The Paradox Peril

Every strength creates a corresponding shadow—a blind spot bigger than a billboard that everyone sees except you.

One brilliant cost cutter became CEO of a consumer goods company. His superpower: finding efficiency everywhere. He cut costs like a samurai with a spreadsheet. The problem? He cost-cut the company into irrelevance. He eliminated R&D "waste," reduced marketing "excess," streamlined away everything that made them special. Five years later, sold for parts. Efficiency excellence had murdered innovation.

Jack Welch at GE exemplified this perfectly. His legendary focus on efficiency created short-term success but planted seeds of long-term destruction. He was so good at cutting costs that he cut GE's ability to innovate. By the time he left, GE was a hollow giant—impressive on spreadsheets, weak in reality.

Here's the horrifying truth: we double down on strengths when threatened. Analytical people become more analytical when they need to be intuitive. Decisive leaders become more dictatorial when they need to listen. It's like escaping quicksand by sinking faster.

What You'll Learn in This Episode

Todd Hagopian reveals Systematic Weakness Inoculation. You don't need to become great at everything—just develop minimum competence in fatal flaw areas.

You'll discover how to identify your Achilles Patterns. If you're incredibly analytical, your weakness is probably intuitive decision-making. If you're a natural visionary, your weakness is likely operational execution.

You'll learn Deliberate Discomfort Training. One analytical CFO forced himself to make three intuitive decisions weekly—no spreadsheets allowed. By month three, he spotted opportunities analysis alone would miss.

You'll also get the 70/30 Rule: spend 70% using strengths, 30% developing minimum competence in weaknesses.

Your Assignment

Identify your greatest professional strength. Write down its shadow side. This week, practice that weakness 30 minutes daily. That discomfort is growth.

Visit https://stagnationassassins.com and Declare WAR on Stagnation.

About The Podcaster

Todd Hagopian has led five corporate transformations generating $2B+ in shareholder value. Author of The Unfair Advantage (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FV6QMWBX). Featured 30+ times on Forbes.com, Fox Business, and NPR.

One company made 150% profit on some customers while hemorrhaging money on 65% of everything they sold—and called it strategic positioning. They were like a restaurant charging $20 for a steak that cost $30 to make, wondering why they couldn't pay rent.

Companies confuse customer collection with value creation, treating revenue like Pokemon cards. Gotta catch them all—even if they're killing your company.

The Profit-Pulverizing Paradox

One manufacturing company served everyone from mom-and-pop shops ordering 10 units to major retailers ordering 10,000. Those small orders required the same processing time, same customer service, same invoice effort—but generated only 2% of profit. They were running a charity with corporate letterhead.

The horrifying truth? Most companies can't identify which customer-product combinations create or destroy value. They know Customer A buys Product X but don't know if that specific combination makes money or murders margins.

I've seen companies where the top 20% of customers generated 200% of profit—meaning bottom segments destroyed more than half the value created. That's not a business—that's a wealth redistribution program.

Target discovered about 30% of their SKUs generated less than 1% of profit while consuming 40% of shelf space. Premium real estate displaying products nobody wanted.

What You'll Learn in This Episode

Todd Hagopian reveals the 80/20 Matrix mapping every customer-product combination into four quadrants.

Quadrant One: Profit Paradise—top 20% customers buying top 20% products. One company discovered just 100 combinations generated 140% of profits. Everything else was neutral or negative.

Quadrant Two: Scale Trap—smaller customers buying core products. Profitable with the right service model. Automate and systematize.

Quadrant Three: Strategic Challenge—top customers buying non-core products. One manufacturer found a customer ordering 47 SKUs where only five were profitable.

Quadrant Four: Killing Field—small customers buying non-core products, usually destroying 50-100% of total profits. Solution: raise prices 30% minimum, implement minimum orders, or fire them.

Your Assignment

Create your 80/20 matrix. List top and bottom 20% of customers. Calculate real profitability of each combination.

If firing certain customers would double your profits, why are you still serving them?

Visit https://stagnationassassins.com and Declare WAR on Stagnation.

About The Podcaster

Todd Hagopian has led five corporate transformations generating $2B+ in shareholder value. Author of The Unfair Advantage (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FV6QMWBX). Featured 30+ times on Forbes.com, Fox Business, and NPR.