Book Titles

We learn more by examining why a great company fell into mediocrity (or worse) and comparing it to a company that sustained its success than we do by merely studying successful enterprise.

Better to learn from how others fell than to repeat their mistakes out of ignorance.

…research indicates that organizational decline is largely self-inflicted, and recovery largely within our own control.

The evidence simply does not support the notion that all companies must inevitably succumb to demise and disintegration, at least not within a 100-year time frame.

Just because you may have made mistakes and fallen into the stages of decline does not seal your fate.

…it’s far better to create your own future, repeatedly, than to wait for external forces to dictate your choices.

When an organization grows beyond its ability to fill its key seats with the right people, it has set itself up for a fall.

A core business that meets a fundamental human need – and one at which you’ve become the best in the world – rarely becomes obsolete.

…great companies foster a productive tension between continuity and change.

When institutions fail to distinguish between current practices and the enduring principles of their success, and mistakenly fossilize around their practices, they’ve set themselves up for decline.