Showing papers by "Danny Miller published in 1990"

The Icarus paradox : how exceptional companies bring about their own downfall : new lessons in the dynamics of corporate success, decline, and renewal

Abstract: Just as the fabled Icarus of Greek mythology was able to fly so high, so close to the sun, that his wax wings melted and he plunged into the sea, this same paradox can apply to outstanding companies - their very success seduces them into the excesses that cause their downfall. "The Icarus Paradox" is a breathtaking account of what creates stellar business success, and at the same time, sows the seeds of corporate failure. After researching over 200 companies, Miller discovered that success imperils an organization through the momentum it creates and he has coined a new language to describe the rise and fall of major corporations. Craftsmen such as Ford and Texas Instruments have become concerned only with the products they have created, totally oblivious to the markets they have lost. Pioneers such as Wang and Apple have become escapists, so caught up in searching for breakthroughs that they create often brilliant yet commercially useless products.

The Icarus Paradox: How Exceptional Companies Bring About Their Own Downfall

Abstract: The old story of Icarus can still teach us new lessons in the dynamics of corporate success, decline, and renewal. ~ he fabled 1 Icarus of Greek mythology is said to have flown so high, s o c l o s e to the sun, that his artificial wax wings melted and he plunged to his death in the Aegean Sea. The power of Icarus's m wings gave rise to the abandon that so doomed him. The paradox, of course, is that his greatest asset led to his demise. And that same paradox applies to many outstanding companies: their victories and their strengths s o often seduce them into the excesses that cause their downfall. Success leads to specialization and exaggeration, to confidence and complacency, to dogma and ritual. This general tendency, its causes, and how to manage it are what this article is all about. It is ironic that many of the most dramatically successful organizations are so prone to failure. The histories of outstanding companies demonstrate this time and again. In fact, it appears that when taken to excess the same things that drive success--focused, tried-and-true strategies, confident leadership, galvanized corporate cultures, and especially the interplay of all these elem e n t s a l s o cause decline. Robust, superior organizations evolve into flawed purebreds; they move from rich character to exaggerated caricature as all subtlety, all nuance, is gradually lost. Many outstanding organizations follow such paths of deadly momentum-t ime-bomb trajectories of attitudes, policies, and events that lead to falling sales, plummeting profits, even bankruptcy. These companies extend and amplify the strategies to which they credit their success. Productive attention to detail, for instance, turns into an obsession with minutiae; rewarding innovation escalates into gratuitous invention; and measured growth becomes unbridled expansion. In contrast, activities that were merely de-emphas i z e d n o t viewed as integral to the recipe for success--are virtually extinguished. Modest marketing deteriorates into lackluster promotion and inadequate distribution; tolerable engineering becomes shoddy design. The result: strategies become less balanced. They center more and more around a single core strength that is amplified unduly while other aspects are forgotten almost entirely. Such changes are not limited to strategy. The heroes who shaped the winning formula gain adulation and absolute authority, while others drop to third-class citizenship. An increasingly monolithic culture impels firms to focus on an ever smaller set of considerations and to rally around a narrowing path to victory. Reporting relationships, roles, programs, decision-making processes---even target markets--come to reflect and serve the central strategy and nothing else. And policies are converted into rigid laws and rituals by avidly embraced credos and ideologies. By then, organizational learning has ceased, tunnel vision rules, and flexibility is lost. This riches-to-rags scenario seduces some of our most acclaimed corporations; and in our research on outstanding companies we have found four principal examples of it, four very common "trajectories" of decline (see Figure 1): • The focusing trajectory takes punctilious, quality-driven CRAFTSMEN organizations with their masterful engineers and airtight operations, and turns them into rigidly controlled, detailobsessed T I N K E R E R S f i r m s w h o s e insular, tech-

Organizational Configurations: Cohesion, Change, and Prediction

Abstract: Recent studies have argued that the variety of organizational forms is limited and that certain common organizational configurations-alignments among strategy, structure and environment-occur with remarkable frequency and account-for a very significant fraction of organizations. This has been demonstrated empirically. The purpose of this paper is to probe into the cohesion, dynamics, and predictive implications of configurations. Ten propositions are derived by analyzing some representative configurations. It is proposed that the constrained variety and cohesion of configurations are caused by the interdependent, robust, cyclical, and reciprocal relationships among their parts. It is also argued that configurations vary in their first-order changes, but that all resist second-order changes, that is, changes in the direction of evolution. This makes them prone to long periods of momentum punctuated by brief periods of revolution. Finally, configurations are shown to vary in their internal relationships so ...

Narcisismo e liderança: uma perspectiva de relações de objetos

Abstract: Problems concerning leadership and personality features of leaders, despite ali the research already conducted, still deserve further study. According to the authors of this article, the feature shared by most leaders is their ability to arouse primary emotions like: strong identifications or rejections, love and hate, helping or obstructing the administra tive task. What makes a leader pathologicaly destructive or very inspiring? The degree of narcisism kept by each leader's personality and its origin are the main elements that establish the different leadership styles.