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There was an old woman with three little children, and as she had not enough to keep them, she sent them out to seek their fortune as CEOs.

The first that went off met a man with a new application, and said to him, “Please, man, let me use that application to build me a company.” Which the man did, and the little CEO built a company around it.

The business plan was very strong for a long while, and the company grew and grew, and the little CEO hired more and more people, and gave them free lunches and free coffee, until… it stopped. The application grew overly complex and its users began to look for less complex solutions that cost less money, and that meant they left the little CEO’s company. The little CEO doubled-down on the business plan, because it had worked so well for so long… but customers continued to leave and his employees grew disillusioned.

Presently came along a wolf, and knocked at the door, and said, “Little executive, little executive, let me come in.”

To which the CEO answered, “No, no, by the hair of my chiny chin chin.”

The wolf then answered to that, “Then I’ll huff, and I’ll puff, and I’ll blow your company down.”

So he huffed, and he puffed, and because there were no employees left who believed in the company to support it, he blew the company down, and ate up the little CEO.

The second little CEO decided to go into business for himself, and pulled together a small team to create the business with. But this CEO couldn’t handle the finances well, and made costly deals with big customers, and kept hiring people only to lay them off a short time later. This led to inconsistency in the product and in institutional knowledge, and morale plummeted. Eventually, despite having some impressive customers, the company was only a shell of its former self.

So the wolf came, and as he did to the first little CEO, and said, “Little executive, little executive, let me come in.”

“No, no, by the hair of my chiny chin chin.”

“Then I’ll huff, and I’ll puff, and I’ll blow your company in.”

Well, he huffed, and he puffed, and he huffed and he puffed, and he puffed and huffed; but he could not get the house down. When he found that he could not, with all his huffing and puffing, blow the house down, he knocked on the door and, to his surprise, everyone inside pushed the second little CEO out for the wolf to eat right up.

The third little CEO met a man with an idea, and it was a good idea, and said, “Please, man, give me that idea to build a company.” Which the man did.

The idea had legs, but a scope creep entered the company, and despite the employees’ best efforts to stop the creep, it turned the idea into something untenable. The third little CEO liked the creep and let it stay, because he thought the creep would make him money… but his employees, after warning him about listening to the creep, grew disillusioned and left.

Then along came the wolf, and said as he did with the other little CEOs, “Little executive, little executive, let me come in.”

“No, no, by the hair of my chiny chin chin.”

“Then I’ll puff, and I’ll huff, and I’ll blow your company down.”

So he started to huff, and he started to puff, but then the creep opened the door wide, and the wolf walked right in, ate up the third little CEO, and took over the company.

The moral of the story is you should continually look for ways to reinvent and improve the company, never get too big for your britches, always kick the scope creep to the curb, and always talk with your employees.