Stage IV:
The Comatose Stage

In healthcare, a patient is considered comatose when they are in a prolonged state of unconsciousness and are unaware and unresponsive to their environment.

In business, if your organization is unable to respond to business opportunities then it is probably in Stage IV – The Comatose Stage. We worked with a client that was awarded a contract for $250,000. This was the biggest contract they had ever received. Sadly, they could not respond to this opportunity because they could not afford the production costs to produce the goods.

Here are some Comatose indicators …

1. Unable to detect or seek out growth opportunities
   When an organization loses the vision and the forward-thinking capabilities that successful companies have, the organization is comatose.
2. Aware but unable to act
   A comatose business may be able to identify growth opportunities but is unable to take advantage ofthe opportunity. Theobvious reasons a comatose business may be unable to take advantage of opportunities is lack of money. But that is usually the least critical reason a comatose cannot take advantage of growth opportunities. Here are some other reasons:
   1. Lack of creativity or a creative culture
   2. Staff expertise
   3. Inability to collaborate

All three of these reasons come from one or more of the previous three stages. For example, if a comatose business is unable to take advantage of growth opportunities because it lacks a creative culture, you can trace this back to Stage I – Stagnation. Remember our discussion on the Hierarchical organizational culture? The hierarchical organizational culture is the opposite of the Market Organizational Culture. We discussed that companies with Market Organizational Culture’s very rarely suffer from Stage I – Stagnation. One of the key hallmarks of a market culture, is the emphasis on creativity.

The absence of the staff expertise can be traced back to Stage II – Contraction. IN stage II we discussed losing the best and brightest staff as a sign that a business is in Stage II of dying. When an organization loses its best andbrightest, it makes it difficult to have the required level of expertise necessary to take advantage of growth opportunities. Why? Because if the businesses competitors have better qualified staff, the competitors are likely to out-compete the comatose business who haslost its best in brightest in Stage II – Contraction.

Comatose is not dead. So even if your business is in Stage IV – Comatose, it can be revived.

Our highly trained Strategic Business Analystsat Strategic Business Analysts LLC will perform a full diagnosis on your business or organization to identify whether your business or organization is in the Stagnation, Contraction, Metamorphic or Comatose stage. And we will develop Business Strategies that will revive and rebound your business or your organization.

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