Tesco. You just have to love them. Tremendously successful, innovative, with a straightforward mission well delivered. Their high-water mark is still some years away, I suspect.
But when the corporate history of their decline is written, the turning point will be seen as the sending of heir apparent Tim Mason off on a "must win" mission in the US - a mission that will inevitably fail. They are in essence taking on the entire US grocery system - without most of the advantages they have in the UK.
The amount of top team time already taken up on discussions about Fresh and Easy, and the huge investment, will shrink into insignificance as they feed ever more money, expertise, and reputation into an losing battle.
In the meantime, the widely discussed "brain drain" continues.