It’s Not Just Culture that Eats Strategy for Breakfast

A Wall Street Journal story chronicling the demise of 99-year-old Yellow Freight, an American trucking company, would, on the surface, seem like just another tale of the unwinding of an old-economy business. Looking deeper, one finds lessons about leadership, strategy, and culture that combined to doom Yellow even though hauling freight by truck remains an essential and viable business.

Yellow's leadership made a series of botched acquisitions--a textbook example of how important execution becomes when trying to implement a strategy. Given how badly management messed up digesting the acquisitions, it is impossible to tell whether the strategy might have worked otherwise. The massive debt load Yellow took on necessitated a $700M COVID loan from the US Government, which ultimately failed to get the company back on its feet. Oh, add to the above a toxic workplace culture engendered by open warfare with the giant Teamsters union. The strategic moves never had a chance.