The four mechanisms
Language drift
The fastest moving and the cheapest to correct. The market renamed the problem and nobody inside noticed.
Evidence decay
Old proof reads worse than less proof, and nothing signals that it is due.
Distribution shift
The mechanism doing the most damage right now, because the current shift has no gradual slide.
Expectation inflation
The floor came up underneath you and no customer will ever mention it.
Why the business is last to know
Why the people who leave never explain
The useful information walks out without saying anything.
Stagnation is not the same as decline
Flat revenue in a growing market is a loss wearing a steady number.
When the market moves and the answer is not reinvention
Three different shifts, and the one most often misdiagnosed as the big one.
The compensation trap
A good team absorbs decay until it cannot, and then the decline looks sudden.
Measuring perception before revenue moves
The order is fixed and knowable, and almost nobody watches the early steps.
Diagnosis and response
Telling decay apart from an execution problem
Four questions, and why applying the wrong treatment costs a year.
What a relevance audit actually checks
Nine dated things, most already sitting in systems you run.
Why a rebrand resets the clock rather than stopping it
It fixes three mechanisms at once and leaves the reason they were unwatched.