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Obama - Living in Hi...
Strength Zone Produc...
Strength Zone - No 1...
The Secret to Being ...
Do You Need a Push?
Are You Autotelic?
Are You Differentiat...
What Drives You?
The Intersection - R...
Your Talent Strength...
Your Talent Strength...
Personalities: The L...
The Steady Eddie Per...
Personalities: The L...
Bulldozer Personalit...
Values in the Workpl...
What Are Values and ...
What Are Values and ...
What Are Values and ...
What Are Values and ...
What Are Values and ...
The Nine Foot Sumo W...
Insanity!!!!!!!!!
Turn Insignificance ...
Olympics and Your St...
The Olympics and You...
Take TIme To Think
Farming, Fertilizer ...
Fidelity versus Conv...
Nobility and Potenti...
Fluid Leadership
Outside Your Strengt...
A Diversified Team i...
Don't Waste Time Cor...
Are You In the Zone?
Don't Get Derailed
Multiply Your Result...
Do You Need Pruning?
Becoming Fully Effec...
Competing in a Flat ...
State of the Economy
Break Free of the N...
Dealing With Extreme...
13 Qualities of Winn...
Never Confuse Moveme...
Be a Person with Ubu...
What Are Values and ...
Does Your Soul Need ...
What are Values and ...
Are Values in the Wo...
Be an Integrative Th...
Protean Corporation
Fitness Clothes Don'...
Untapped Potential
The Next Step
Technical Skills are...
Your Personal Board ...
How The Mighty Fall
THE INTERSECTION
Are You Hiring Peopl...
Network to Improve Y...
Cato's Principle: Al...
Morganization
Talent Strength Zone...
Talent Strength Zone
Strength Zone Reflec...
Strength Zone versus...
Obama's Communicatio...
Personal Brand State...
Leverage the Strengt...
Obama - Living in Hi...
Strength Zone Produc...
Strength Zone - No 1...
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How The Mighty Fall
2009-07-19 22:14:46
I recently read Jim Collins' new book, "How the Mighty Fall". This is an outstanding book that takes a detailed look at companies that were great companies as defined by Collins' previous book "Good to Great", and fell to irrelevance. Collins defines a great company as one that had to significantly outperform the market for at least 15 years in a row. On average, the companies that Collins studied as great companies outperformed the general stock market by at least 6.9 times.
Collins found that these great companies had one thing in common .they followed 3 simple principles;
1. They determined what they could do where they were "best in class" or best in the world at
2. Because they were best in class, they were passionate about what they did
3. They understood what drove their economic engine (i.e., they understood how they could take their strengths and their passion and build a profitable company around these two principles) and they took a disciplined approach at doing so.
The first two principles sound very similar to the Strength Zone concept .discover what your strengths are and do your best to always leverage your strengths in everything that you do. Good to Great is kind of like a corporate Strength Zone!
As stated above, the book, "How the Mighty Fall", deals with a number of the companies featured in Good to Great that took their eye off the ball, stopped following the three principles and fell to irrelevance or disappeared entirely. Collins determined that there are five stages of decline listed below. Take a look at these and see if you can name a company that falls into any of the stages.
Stage 1 - Hubris Born of Success
Success, entitlement, arrogance
Neglect of a primary flywheel
"What" replaces "why"
Decline in learning orientation
Discounting the role of luck
Stage 2 - Undisciplined Pursuit of More
Unsustainable quest for growth, confusing big with great
Undisciplined discontinuous leaps
Declining proportion of right people in right seats
Easy cash erodes cost discipline
Bureaucracy subverts discipline
Problematic success of power
Personal interests placed above organizational interests
Stage 3 - Denial of Risk and Peril
Amplify the positive, discount the negative
Big bets and bold goals without empirical validation
Incurring huge downside risk based on ambiguous data
Erosion of healthy team dynamics
Externalizing blame
Obsessive reorganizations
Imperious detachment
Stage 4 - Grasping for Salvation
A series of silver bullets
Grasping for a leader-as-savior
Panic and haste
Radical change and "revolution" fanfare
Hype proceeds results
Initial upswing followed by disappointments
Confusion and cynicism
Chronic restructuring and erosion of financial strength
Stage 5 - Capitulation to Irrelevance or Death
Now that you have read through this from a corporate perspective, do it again from a personal perspective. Not all of the bullets will apply at a personal level but many of them do.
Have you taken your eye off the ball at a personal level? Have you forgotten to leverage your strengths? Is it time to re-evaluate your strengths and determine how you can best apply them to each role that you have in life?
Don't brush this off to quickly. You cannot reach your full potential unless you work in your areas of strength ..just like the corporate principles identified by Collins in Good to Great.
Tags: strengths, , talents, , jim, collins, , how, the, mighty, fall, , strength, zone
0 Comments
2009-07-19 22:14:46
I recently read Jim Collins' new book, "How the Mighty Fall". This is an outstanding book that takes a detailed look at companies that were great companies as defined by Collins' previous book "Good to Great", and fell to irrelevance. Collins defines a great company as one that had to significantly outperform the market for at least 15 years in a row. On average, the companies that Collins studied as great companies outperformed the general stock market by at least 6.9 times.
Collins found that these great companies had one thing in common .they followed 3 simple principles;
1. They determined what they could do where they were "best in class" or best in the world at
2. Because they were best in class, they were passionate about what they did
3. They understood what drove their economic engine (i.e., they understood how they could take their strengths and their passion and build a profitable company around these two principles) and they took a disciplined approach at doing so.
The first two principles sound very similar to the Strength Zone concept .discover what your strengths are and do your best to always leverage your strengths in everything that you do. Good to Great is kind of like a corporate Strength Zone!
As stated above, the book, "How the Mighty Fall", deals with a number of the companies featured in Good to Great that took their eye off the ball, stopped following the three principles and fell to irrelevance or disappeared entirely. Collins determined that there are five stages of decline listed below. Take a look at these and see if you can name a company that falls into any of the stages.
Stage 1 - Hubris Born of Success
Success, entitlement, arrogance
Neglect of a primary flywheel
"What" replaces "why"
Decline in learning orientation
Discounting the role of luck
Stage 2 - Undisciplined Pursuit of More
Unsustainable quest for growth, confusing big with great
Undisciplined discontinuous leaps
Declining proportion of right people in right seats
Easy cash erodes cost discipline
Bureaucracy subverts discipline
Problematic success of power
Personal interests placed above organizational interests
Stage 3 - Denial of Risk and Peril
Amplify the positive, discount the negative
Big bets and bold goals without empirical validation
Incurring huge downside risk based on ambiguous data
Erosion of healthy team dynamics
Externalizing blame
Obsessive reorganizations
Imperious detachment
Stage 4 - Grasping for Salvation
A series of silver bullets
Grasping for a leader-as-savior
Panic and haste
Radical change and "revolution" fanfare
Hype proceeds results
Initial upswing followed by disappointments
Confusion and cynicism
Chronic restructuring and erosion of financial strength
Stage 5 - Capitulation to Irrelevance or Death
Now that you have read through this from a corporate perspective, do it again from a personal perspective. Not all of the bullets will apply at a personal level but many of them do.
Have you taken your eye off the ball at a personal level? Have you forgotten to leverage your strengths? Is it time to re-evaluate your strengths and determine how you can best apply them to each role that you have in life?
Don't brush this off to quickly. You cannot reach your full potential unless you work in your areas of strength ..just like the corporate principles identified by Collins in Good to Great.
Tags: strengths, , talents, , jim, collins, , how, the, mighty, fall, , strength, zone
0 Comments