Big companies rarely die suddenly. In most cases, the decline is self-inflicted: arrogance, undisciplined growth, denial of risk and governance failures that stay hidden while revenue keeps growing. This e-book performs an autopsy of landmark cases to extract management "antibodies": what your company must avoid and what to do so it doesn't end up in the graveyard.
What's inside
- The five stages of decline, based on Jim Collins's How the Mighty Fall: from hubris born of success to capitulation to irrelevance.
- Six autopsies: fraud and the culture of fear at Theranos; the megalomania of Brazil's Grupo X; the personality cult at WeWork; the governance vacuum at FTX; the accounting hole at Lojas Americanas; and the digital bank run at Silicon Valley Bank.
- Three comebacks: how IBM, Best Buy and LEGO looked into the abyss and made it back.
- A survival manual: the path to decline compared with the path to resilience in culture, leadership, strategy, governance, finance and reality, with four final recommendations.
Who it's for
- Founders, partners and board members who want to spot warning signs before they become a crisis.
- Managers interested in governance, internal controls and sustainable growth.
How to use it
Read the five stages and compare them with where your company is today. Then use the survival manual's framework to assess culture, governance and finance and define the first adjustments.
