Bell Curves and Base Camps

During the start-up years of LMT, I read several articles about how product life cycles are bell curves; they typically peak and then decline. I also subscribed to the Harvard Business Review (HBR) and it featured a series about why most startups fail within the first five years.

Between the image of the bell curve and the HBR stats, the message loomed large that I needed to remain on high alert to recognize when LMT might peak and start to decline. I also decided it was important to have more than one product. We created LAB DAY.

Our fourth year was exceptional; I knew then that we were going to beat the all-important first-five-year odds. Nevertheless, my mantra remained that I’d never rest on my laurels. That was never an issue for our team anyway, because rather than being numbers oriented, we’ve always remained focused on challenging ourselves internally to continuously up the ante on what we deliver.

So we introduced Synergy—a magazine designed...