I thoroughly enjoyed the non-fiction novel How the Mighty Fall and Why Some Companies Never Give In, by Mr. Jim Collins. The book aims to provide readers with a universal truth as to why larger than life global mega companies fail, however while the lesson is written in the language of business, these lessons are truly universal and have applications to everyday life. As the titles suggests, this book provides examples with fact and data, collected over a long period of time. Mr. Collins outline how companies fall and their “five stages of decline”. These stages include: • Hubris Born of Success- Pride - Hubris is the trigger causing the company to believe it is infallible and that it will never fail. • Undisciplined pursuit of more- Greed- These poor decisions in fact could potentially harm the company. • Denial of risk or Peril- With the backdrop of hubris, leaders deny the existence of any sort of problem or negative message despite factual data points leading to failure. • Grasping for Salvation- The company starts making desperate and irrational attempts to save itself, sometimes by bringing in a outside/new leader as the CEO • Capitulation to irrelevance or Death - No longer able to keep “a float” the company fails. These stages are explained separately throughout the book in order of occurrence with an immense amount of detail. Through the presentment of data, graphs and appendices, Mr. Collins presents compelling and convincing support of his thesis. Though it is well written, Mr. Collin does not seem to have a bias because he is using the writing style of “fact-proof-explanation”. He states the reasons why companies fall, then provides real life evidence to support his theme and finally explains what the company did wrong and what they should have done to prevent their failure. I agree with the author’s main argument that hubris is the leading factor in the fall of a company. Hubris leads to the belief of infallibility, which in turn leads to undisciplined actions which in turn leads to a denial of risks, which in turns leads to grasping for salvation and finally leading to the capitulation to irrelevance of death. This sequence is propelled by emotion, which is a very human trait. History is littered with people feeling they or their organizations are infallible. With the benefit of time one wonders how they could make such irrational decisions. Hubris has bred the likes of Hitler, Napoleon, Martha Stewart, Conrad Black. On the surface the book appears to be negative, however it does provide a glimmer of hope. It also gives examples of companies that turned things around by rejecting hubris and facing the difficult situations head on with honest and truthful assessments of the facts. I agree with the author’s main contentions. One of the books great strengths is its use of real life examples of household names, such as Motorola. This allows the reader to have a direct connection between the content of the book and the reader’s real life. Strength is the use of visual charts, graphs, and appendices. These enabled the reader to understand the book while reading it. The book did have some weaknesses in that it used some technical business jargon that the reader may not have heard of before. Additionally he refers to his earlier novel, “Good to Great” putting any readers who had not read it at a disadvantage. Mr. Jim Collins is a well known, highly regarded business writer. Many business leaders read his novels. He is the author of “Good to Great”, which was on the New York Times best sellers list. Not only is he a novelist but he also writes columns for the Economists, Business Daily and other business magazines. It provides easy to follow guidelines on how not to fail, but if you are in the downward spiral, what others have done to get out of it. This book is destined to become a classic given the financial carnage of the last two years.
I thoroughly enjoyed the non-fiction novel How the Mighty Fall and Why Some Companies Never Give In, by Mr. Jim Collins. The book aims to provide readers with a universal truth as to why larger than life global mega companies fail, however while the lesson is written in the language of business, these lessons are truly universal and have applications to everyday life.
ReplyDeleteAs the titles suggests, this book provides examples with fact and data, collected over a long period of time. Mr. Collins outline how companies fall and their “five stages of decline”. These stages include:
• Hubris Born of Success- Pride - Hubris is the trigger causing the company to believe it is infallible and that it will never fail.
• Undisciplined pursuit of more- Greed- These poor decisions in fact could potentially harm the company.
• Denial of risk or Peril- With the backdrop of hubris, leaders deny the existence of any sort of problem or negative message despite factual data points leading to failure.
• Grasping for Salvation- The company starts making desperate and irrational attempts to save itself, sometimes by bringing in a outside/new leader as the CEO
• Capitulation to irrelevance or Death - No longer able to keep “a float” the company fails.
These stages are explained separately throughout the book in order of occurrence with an immense amount of detail. Through the presentment of data, graphs and appendices, Mr. Collins presents compelling and convincing support of his thesis.
Though it is well written, Mr. Collin does not seem to have a bias because he is using the writing style of “fact-proof-explanation”. He states the reasons why companies fall, then provides real life evidence to support his theme and finally explains what the company did wrong and what they should have done to prevent their failure.
I agree with the author’s main argument that hubris is the leading factor in the fall of a company. Hubris leads to the belief of infallibility, which in turn leads to undisciplined actions which in turn leads to a denial of risks, which in turns leads to grasping for salvation and finally leading to the capitulation to irrelevance of death. This sequence is propelled by emotion, which is a very human trait. History is littered with people feeling they or their organizations are infallible. With the benefit of time one wonders how they could make such irrational decisions. Hubris has bred the likes of Hitler, Napoleon, Martha Stewart, Conrad Black. On the surface the book appears to be negative, however it does provide a glimmer of hope. It also gives examples of companies that turned things around by rejecting hubris and facing the difficult situations head on with honest and truthful assessments of the facts. I agree with the author’s main contentions.
One of the books great strengths is its use of real life examples of household names, such as Motorola. This allows the reader to have a direct connection between the content of the book and the reader’s real life. Strength is the use of visual charts, graphs, and appendices. These enabled the reader to understand the book while reading it.
The book did have some weaknesses in that it used some technical business jargon that the reader may not have heard of before. Additionally he refers to his earlier novel, “Good to Great” putting any readers who had not read it at a disadvantage.
Mr. Jim Collins is a well known, highly regarded business writer. Many business leaders read his novels. He is the author of “Good to Great”, which was on the New York Times best sellers list. Not only is he a novelist but he also writes columns for the Economists, Business Daily and other business magazines. It provides easy to follow guidelines on how not to fail, but if you are in the downward spiral, what others have done to get out of it. This book is destined to become a classic given the financial carnage of the last two years.
666 words? Nice review.
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