How The Mighty Fall: And Why Some Companies Never Give In (Good to Great, 4) Hardcover – May 19, 2009

Brilliant. It's the only way to describe a book that reasserts the obvious, the basics, the human fundamentals that have not changed in at least 5,000 years. Hubris. Arrogance. Greed. Bureaucracy. The Greeks examined these topics 2,500 years ago. William Shakespeare asserted human faults lies in ourselves and not in our stars. But who listens to such common sense? Collins is criticized by those who cite "external" factors affecting the economy instead of their own failings. Well, one fact must be accepted: Every economy is people based. People create the economy, people run it and people are its glories and faults. If it doesn't satisfy the needs of people, even the cleverest "economy" is nothing. Economists who claim to have a formula to explain the economic future are the alchemists of the modern world; the future is what people do, and that is never predictable. "Whether you prevail or fail, endure or die, depends more on what you do to yourself than on what the world does to you," Collins writes. This infuriates conservatives because it implies they or America aren't destined by God to be No. 1. Liberals hate it because it tells them they cannot devise a formula to make everyone healthy, wealthy, wise and happy Democratic voters. "We are doing God's work," said Lloyd Blankfein, chief executive of Goldman Sachs. God was not pleased, so Goldman Sachs got its $10 billion bailout from taxpayers. Even the Son of God didn't think money changers are that good or well connected; He tossed them out of the temple. The fact Collins stresses most is customer service. He cites various cases of companies ignoring this rule and subsequently failing. Motorola is an example; my trying to trying to deal helpfully with Motorola was an exercise in futility. Motorola thought customers existed to make Motorola rich. Collins deftly points out how this led to Motorla's collapse. Business people who fail to heed this book will fail; those who do understand it may have a lot more to learn, but at least they understand the basics. Buy a copy for your favourite chief executive, and give it with the reminder: There Will Be a Test With One Answer. The only answer that matters is the success or failure of the business.

Collins always does a good job. I never agree on all things but his books are well researched and written.

This book is "Collins lite." I give it 4 stars as an homage to his prior contributions.Jim Collins has taught us much about the framework to achieve "greatness" either by focusing on building lasting institutions, preserving core principles, and stimulating progress from the beginning ("Built to Last") or by having disciplined people think disciplined thoughts and take disciplined actions ("Good to Great")."How The Mighty Fall" did not continue this distinguished trend for me.Although he retained the "paired comparisons, I never could buy into his methodology this time (p. 4). I do not see how his team could "consciously ignore" the hindsight and perspective they acquired from performing the research for the two previous award-winning books while reading the paper trail in chronological sequence. I don't think anyone is that disciplined, even the mountain-conquering Mr. Collins.Secondly, why did he not go outside this original database to expand his model? He is not the only researcher on this topic. Ignoring the existence of this trove of research diminishes its overall clout.His "Five stages of Decline" model (p. 20) strongly parallels Elizabeth Kubler-Ross' model for the stages of handling grief and dying which she published over 40 years ago and is used in almost (if not all) healthcare educational institutions and organizations across the world How could such an accomplished researcher be ignorant of this model and not reference it in any footnote? The strong relationship between the two models would have strengthen his conclusions without diminishing his original research.He offered up about 98% anecdotes and about 2% data to make his case. It would seem that none of this learned mentors ever told him that "data is not the plural of anecdote."Finally, the book is also "lite" on mass - a mere 123 pages of large-text - or 222 total pages including all appendices. He says he started this book contemporaneously with the economic colapse in September 2008 (p. xiii). That coupled with the previous observations and a gratuitous version of why Fannie Mae fell into near collapse (Appendix 3) give just enough of a whiff of a "rush to market" to sell a few more books rather capture disciplined thoughts.I am glad I got the book at a the Amazon discount price. That compensates me for lower-than-expected value perceived from Collin's "discounted" Collins research and "light-weight" conclusions.

Another great book to have and read!

Good book. Thanks

Tal vez sea el libro más crudo de Collins y por ello el más necesario. Analiza la caída de muchas empresas, algunas de las cuales eran tomadas como referencia en sus libros anteriores. ¿Cómo caen? ¿Qué errores cometen? ¿Hay pautas en común? Este libro es un poco "cuando las barbas de tu vecino veas pelar, pon las tuyas a remojar", un recordatorio de que las cosas pueden ir mal que sin duda ayuda a que no vayan mal.

All good

While I don't agree with all his conclusions the book is very valuable because of the study taken and the examples given to show how it's not done. No need to repeat THOSE mistakes. A must-read for successful people in the world.