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Description
Decline can be avoided. Decline can be detected. Decline can be reversed. Amidst the desolate landscape of fallen great companies, Jim Collins began to wonder: How do the mighty fall? Can decline be detected early and avoided? How far can a company fall before the path toward doom... read more
Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis
Memorable Quotes
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“While no leader can single-handedly build an enduring great company, the wrong leader vested with power can almost single-handedly bring a company down.”
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“Gerstner returned to the intense, methodical and consistent approach that produces greatness in the first place. He understood that . . . you have to halt the cycle of grasping, and cease jumping from one false salvation to another - from silver bullet to silver bullet - from dashed hope to new hope - only to have hopes dashed yet again.”
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“Don't try to come up with the right answers; focus on coming up with good questions.”
Bill Lazier -
“An organization is more likely to die of indigestion from too much opportunity than starvation from too little.”
David Packard -
“When bureaucratic rules erode an ethic of freedom and responsibility within a framework of core values and demanding standards, you’ve become infected with the disease of mediocrity.”
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“It’s far better to create your own future, repeatedly, than to wait for external forces to dictate your choices.”
Robert Galvin -
“We just didn’t have enough conclusive data to convince anyone.”
NASA O-Ring Task Force (following the Challenger disaster) -
“Every institution is vulnerable, no matter how great. There is no law of nature that the most powerful will inevitably remain at the top. Anyone can fall, and most eventually do.”
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“When you have just a few people, and there's enemy all around you, the best thing is to say 'You take this section, from here to here, and you take this section, from here to here, and do not fire on automatic. Take one shot at a time.”
U.S. Marine, turned entrepreneur -
“(marker for stage 4) Instead of passionately believing in the organization's core values and purpose, people become distrustful, regarding visions and values as little more than PR and rhetoric.”
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“Never forget, you pay your bills with cash. You can be profitable and bankrupt.”
Bill Lazier -
“Not all companies deserve to last. Perhaps society is better off getting rid of organizations that have fallen from great to terrible rather than continuing to let them inflict their massive inadequacies on their stakeholders. Institutional self-perpetuation holds no legitimate place in a world of scarce resources. Institutional mediocrity should be terminated or transformed into excellence.”
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“The right people will drive improvement whether standing on a burning platform or not, and they never take well to being manipulated.”
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“However you slice it, lack of management discipline correlates with decline, and passionate adherence to management discipline correlates with a recovery and ascent.”
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“Be willing to evolve into an entirely different portfolio of activities even to the point of zero overlap with what you do today, but never give up on the principles that define your culture.”
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“The path out of darkness begins with those exasperatingly persistent individuals who are constitutionally incapable of capitulation.”
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“Success is falling down and getting up one more time, without end.”
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“Enduring great companies passionately adhere to a set of timeless core values and pursue a core purpose beyond just making money.”
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“Bad decisions made with good intentions are still bad decisions.”
First Sentence
Table of Contents
Stage 1 - Hubris Born of Success
Stage 2 - Undisciplined Pursuit of More
Stage 3 - Denial of Risk and Peril
Stage 4 - Grasping for Salvation
Stage 5 - Capitulation to Irrelevance or Death
Authors & Contributors
- Jim Collins (Author)
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