How the Mighty Fall

And Why Some Companies Never Give In

By: Jim Collins

Narrated by: Jim Collins

""Whether you prevail or fail, endure or die, depends more on what you do to yourself than on what the world does to you.""—Jim Collins

Decline can be avoided. Decline can be detected. Decline can be reversed.

Amid the desolate landscape of fallen great companies, Jim Collins began to wonder: How do the mighty fall? Can decline be detected early and avoided? How far can a company fall before the path toward doom becomes inevitable and unshakable? How can companies reverse course?

In How the Mighty Fall, Collins confronts these questions, offering leaders the well-founded hope that they can learn how to stave off decline and, if they find themselves falling, reverse their course.

By understanding the stages of decline, leaders can substantially reduce their chances of falling all the way to the bottom. As Collins' research emphasizes, some companies do indeed recover—in some cases, coming back even stronger. As long as you never get entirely knocked out of the game, hope always remains. The mighty can fall, but they can often rise again.

©2009 Jim Collins; (P)2009 Jim Collins

Good

I'm a mid level manager at a Fortune 100 company, and I enjoyed this listen. I'm not sure how practical it was as the target audience for actually doing any of these things is C-suite level, but I've always wondered why companies like Circuit City, Motorola, etc that were profiled in "Good to Great" failed. This does a nice job breaking down the stages of companies headed for the brink.

The Flip Side of Collins' Good to Great Research

I've read Jim Collins' other research books (Built to Last, Good to Great, Great by Choice), and finally listened to this one. The recommendations are backed by solid research, something that is not the case with many other business books.

Collins reads this book himself. He's sometimes overly dramatic as a reader, but you can certainly tell which ideas he thinks are the most important.

Relevance.

Great and relatable content. Helpful references. I would recommend for all growth and mission minded business professionals. Thank you for this publication!

A Must Read for Leaders

If you enjoyed Jim Collins first two books, "Built To Last" and "Good To Great," you will love this book.

Good info

A book for class in my masters program. It was a quick listen with lots of good information and well illustrated examples.