---
id: "concept-bermuda-triangle-management"
type: "concept"
source_timestamps: ["¶6"]
tags: ["scaling-risks", "management-theory"]
related: ["entity-d-daryl-wyckoff", "claim-decision-making-fractures", "concept-structured-empowerment"]
sources: ["tail1"]
sourceVaultSlug: "hbr-seg-tail1"
originDay: 1
articleStem: "hbr-tail-105-fast-growing-better-decisions"
sourceUrl: "https://hbr.org/2026/05/how-fast-growing-companies-can-make-better-decisions"
sourceTitle: "How Fast-Growing Companies Can Make Better Decisions"
---
# Bermuda Triangle of Management

The **Bermuda Triangle of Management** is a term coined by the late Harvard Business School professor [[entity-d-daryl-wyckoff]] to describe a treacherous transitional phase for fast-growing ventures.

It is the zone where a company has become **too large to be run informally by its founders, but is not yet capable of surviving under rigid bureaucracy**. Companies caught here often lose their way as they stumble between over-centralization and over-decentralization without finding a sustainable operating model.

Both centralization and decentralization can pull managers into this zone without their realizing it. The passage is closely tied to the predictable fracturing of founder-led control (see [[claim-decision-making-fractures]] and [[concept-dunbars-number]]). [[concept-structured-empowerment]] is presented as the way through the triangle. See also the direct quote [[quote-bermuda-triangle]].

> **Enrichment.** The attribution of this term to D. Daryl Wyckoff could not be independently verified from the provided research set and should be treated as a claim needing confirmation.