It’s October. And in the spirit of Halloween, we’re publishing a blog series about corporate identity. Well, corporate zombies that is. Intrigued? Read on for more…
The Curse of the Quarterly
At Raise, we see it all the time. Boardrooms lit by PowerPoints. Earnings calls that feel more like rituals than strategy. Leaders held hostage by one question:
Did we beat the Street by a penny?
Welcome to the curse of the quarterly.
On the surface, it looks like discipline. Efficiency. “Shareholder value.” But zoom out and it’s really corporate superstition—short-term survival dressed up as vision.
Here’s the problem: when profit becomes the point, purpose dies.
Profit is Oxygen, Not Identity
Yes, profit matters. It’s oxygen. Without it, the business suffocates. But no one builds a company just to breathe. Oxygen keeps you alive. Purpose gives you a reason to live.
Quarterly thinking flips that. It makes breathing the reason for existence. And that’s how companies slip into zombie mode—technically alive, but soulless.
The First Victims: Your Team
Employees feel it first. When every move is about “making the numbers,” work loses meaning. Creativity shrinks. Risk-taking disappears. People start asking themselves: Why am I here?
The signs are everywhere:
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Disengagement.
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Quiet quitting.
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Burnout masked as “productivity.”
People don’t leave jobs. They leave organizations that feel dead inside.
Customers Notice Too
And here’s the kicker: customers can smell it. They know when a brand is hollow.
The promise says “we care.” The quarterly says “we cut corners.” That gap? It destroys trust. And trust is the real currency.
Case Study: GE — A Hollow Giant
Take General Electric. For decades, it was the crown jewel of American business. Jack Welch made it a legend of quarterly performance. Analysts cheered. Investors celebrated.
But underneath? The obsession with numbers hollowed the company out. By the time the mask slipped, GE had lost not just its competitive edge, but its very identity. It was dropped from the Dow after more than a century.
That’s not leadership. That’s rigor mortis.
The Shuffle of the Undead
Quarterly-obsessed companies don’t collapse overnight. They shuffle forward. They acquire. They expand. They look fine on spreadsheets.
But inside? The culture rots. The customers drift. The brand loses its pulse.
That’s not growth. That’s the undead shuffle.
The Way Out
At Raise, we believe there’s a cure.
It’s not a rebrand. Not another “innovation lab.” Not spin.
It’s rediscovering your identity and clarifying your purpose. Because profit is oxygen, but purpose is heartbeat. Without both, you’re just going through the motions.
The companies that thrive long-term are the ones that put identity back at the center. They make bold bets. They tell the truth. They create cultures people want to work in and brands customers believe in.
That’s how you breathe life into business.
And that’s why we built Raise: to help companies shake off the curse of the quarterly and rediscover what makes them truly alive.
👉 Next in the series: The Anatomy of a Corporate Zombie — the warning signs your company might already be crossing over.
