How the Mighty Fall: Micro Review
An interesting cautionary tale from the author who wrote “Good to Great” & “Built to Last”.
Jim Collins’ “How the mighty fail …” is a look at some industry stalwarts and research into what did them in. Based on researching the fall of companies like Ames, HP, Merck, Motorola, Rubbermaid, Zenith and others, Jim comes up 5 stages of decline : Hubris Born of Success => Undisciplined pursuit of more => Denial of Risk => Grasping for Salvation => Capitulation to irrelevance.
It’s a well researched book though at times it does feel like an apology for his previous books where he chronicled some of the same companies as being “Great” :) My feeling is that depending on your company, there will be certain things in a particular stage that will resonate strongly.
I would recommend the book. Few pearls of wisdom that resonated:
“.. it’s far better to create your own future, repeatedly, than to wait for external forces to dictate your choices”
“If you have the right people, who accept responsibility, you don’t need to have a lot of senseless rules and mindless bureaucracy”
“One notable distinction between wrong people and right people is that the former see themselves as having “jobs”, while the latter see themselves as having responsibilities.”
