Jim Collins’ recent book, How the Mighty Fall: And Why Some Companies Never Give In is interesting for a couple of reasons. First, he is looking at failed companies rather than great companies, which is a change for the noted management author. Second, he found that failing companies go through some predictable stages before they disappear. The stages are:
1. Hubris born of success
2. Undisciplined pursuit of more
3. Denial of risk and peril
4. Grasping for a silver bullet
5. Capitulation to irrelevance or death
It also interesting because Collins claims that if you find your organization at a stage above stage 5, you may be able to reverse the process. But what’s most interesting to me is that the stages are BEHAVIORS of leaders. Think about it. According to Collins, organizations do not fail because of the wrong ERP, old technology or issues related to capital or markets or finance. No, Collins says that organizations fail due to the inappropriate behaviors of their leaders. Sounds like a talent management issue to me. What do you think?
