How the Mighty Fall displays that a decline can be avoided, detected and reversed.

Through all of the companies that have fallen through the varied times of economical struggle and boom, Jim Collins asked the question of; 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?

Jim Collins in this mind absorbing book, How the Mighty Fall, he answers these questions, offering leaders the well-founded hope that they can learn how to counteract the state of decline, no matter what size the business is in. Collins' four year research uncovers a five step-wise stages of decline:

Stage 1: Hubris Born of Success;
Stage 2: Undisciplined Pursuit of More;
Stage 3: Denial of Risk and Peril;
Stage 4: Grasping for Salvation;
Stage 5: Capitulation to Irrelevance or Death.

By highlighting and recognising these stages of decline, leaders can substantially reduce their chances of falling all the way to the bottom. Great companies can stumble and recover with every institution, no matter how great, is vulnerable to decline. Anyone can fall and most eventually do. But, as Collins' research emphasizes, some companies do indeed recover - in some cases, coming back even stronger.

Decline can be largely self-inflicted, and the path to recovery lies largely within our own hands. As long as we never get entirely knocked out of the game, hope always remains. The mighty can fall, but they can often rise again.