Analysis of the Book How the Mighty Fall

The book is an indicator that success or failure in business is unpredictable. Companies no matter their successful present may be on the onsite of a downward spiral to destruction. Collins enables the corporate to approach the unpredictable by learning how the mighty fall. By answering questions such as how can the decline be avoided? What are the decline stages? , and how can the reverse course be adopted by declining companies? , the book is summarized into five stages of how the decline of great companies can be detected, avoided and reversed. These stages are: 1. The hope to rise again is what conquers the historical baggage of defeat, it a company’s recovery process. Clearly, the emphasis is on the mighty falling but the pressure is on the journey of recovering and rising again.

Introduction Normally, when one is at the top cream of the world, the most successful and powerful on earth or in a particular industry, the success and power cover up the possibility of a decline discourse. The critical question then becomes, how would such companies know of their decline path? Evidence-based research indicates that the greatest companies have collapsed to irrelevance from their once iconic significance. It is only by learning the demise of such companies that others have a chance to avoid their fate. Precipitous fall to organizations that look successful from the outside is what the five stages of decline proposed by Collins address. Blackberry Limited Co. The failure of BlackBerry Company is closely tied to its success. History dates BlackBerry smartphone as the ultimate phone of its time.

This was the pre-iPhone era when the Android prototypes by Google were even BlackBerry clones. BlackBerry’s dominance in the smartphone market was as a result of an innovative approach to portability, consumer relations and research. By focusing on the customers they had, Blackberry missed on the potential new customers that were to become part of the family. On the Android and Apple front, furious evolution seeking a new market share in the industry. Governments and other big business relied on reliable emails, utilitarian functionality, and security (BlackBerry's Success Led to Its Failure). Though Nokia might have most of the global markets, BlackBerry was popular in the US. When such steep learning curve towards learning is lost, then a decline may have started.

e) Discounting luck: Superiority and quality of leadership are presumed to help companies through their success journey, discounting the role of ‘luck’ and ‘chance’ in the journey. Acknowledging the role of ‘luck’ enables the organization to plan and estimate according. Stage 2: Undisciplined Pursuit of More The stages are sequential and from the narrative of “We are so great, we can do anything!” in stage 1, the Undisciplined Pursuit of More explodes creating more acclaim and scale to the perception of “success”. In this stage, the disciplined creatively that captivated the winning mentality is abandoned and undisciplined leaps into unprecedented excellence. e) The succession of power becomes a problem due to leadership-transition difficulties, poor planning, political turmoil, unwise succession guidelines, and bad luck.

f) More energy is consumed in achieving personal interests as opposed to organizational interest. Those in power allocate more privileges and resources to their private discourse capitalizing in the short term as opposed to sustainable investments. Consequently, some of these indicators are clearly articulated within the frameworks of the declining BlackBerry Limited Co. The organizational culture of the company remained static even during the shifting paradigm in mobile industry innovation. Rather than accepting responsibility, leaders question external factors. High-performance groups and teamwork in the organization disappears and so is fact-based dialogue (Collins, pp. The sequence is already determined for stage 4 whenever leaders disapprove of the consequences of the decline by engaging in outsized risks and actions. According to Collin’s research, some of the indicators for stage 4 include: a) Amplified positivity and discounted negativity: in order to highlight publicity and external praise, leaders discount negative data and presume nothing is wrong within the company.

b) In a bit to rescue the organization, leaders gamble accumulated experience with empirical validation of goals and risks. At this level, the organizational breakdown was evidenced by the fact that customer feedback was handled by executives as opposed to BlackBerry’s co-CEOs (BlackBerry's Success Led to Its Failure). Stage 4: Grasping for Salvation When the accumulated peril and risks explode into full assertiveness, the enterprise is thrown into a steep decline that is internally and externally visible from all perspectives. The critical consideration at this precipitous decline is the responsive behavior of leaders as they weigh in the best options of getting back to the company’s greater past. Stage 4 requires a visionary leader with charisma, untested but bold strategy who can ignite a cultural revolution dramatically leading through a radical transformation.

At first, such dramatic options lead to positive results but only for a while (Collins, pp. However, this strategy failed in 2013. To compete in the same space as iPhone, the company quickly cobbled together the “Storm” which customers hated. BlackBerry also acquired a mobile internet browser, Torch Mobile, which became a nightmare to retrofit into BlackBerry phones. In order to lure back customers and other corporate users, BlackBerry phones were fitted with music applications, camera, and games which the corporate users found unfit for business operations. On the other hand, consumers wanted certain apps which the company was unable to fit into its phone system. From the study of failure, it is understood that all companies go through ups and downs, but an organization founded on the hope and flexibility to certain conditions results in a “never give in” organizational culture.