“institutional imperative:”31 the tendency of executives to mindlessly imitate the behavior of their peers, no matter how foolish it may be to do so. In their lending, many bankers played follow-the-leader with lemming-like zeal; now they are experiencing a lemming-like fate.
The institutional imperative is Buffet's name for the managerial failings of executives. Specific to their tendencies to blindly imitate their peers no matter how obviously poor the decisions are.
