Book Review: How the Mighty Fall by Jim Collins

When I read Jim Collin’s book, Good to Great I felt it was a game changer for anyone interested in leading their organization from Good to Great.  I personally learned so much about how to build healthy and productive teams from that book that I was very interested to hear what Jim Collin’s had to say about how some of the greatest companies in America we knew or know fall, and also how to “Never Give In.”

If you want to read my review of that book from several years ago you can visit it here:  Phil’s Book Review of Jim Collin’s Good to Great

A first look at the title of this book can give you the impression that this is a book totally committed to criticizing how great companies have fallen over the years.  What you’ll be surprised about is Jim Collin’s great care to communicate to the reader that he is writing this book so that good companies be wary of the things that cause good companies to fall as well as offer up opinions based on hundreds of years of data that suggests how (even if you are already in decline) you can see positive movement.

When I read books like these (meaning leadership, management, or organizational leadership books from a non-religious perspective) I am always asking, “What can I learn from this book that can help me lead well as a Pastor?”

Here are some interesting quotes in Jim Collin’s book that stood out to me (my thoughts in RED):

• “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in it’s own way.” – Anna Karenina
• I’ve concluded that there are more ways to fall than to become great.
• Luck and chance play a role in many successful outcomes and those who fail to acknowledge the role luck may have played in their success-and thereby overestimate their own merit and capabilities-have succumbed to hubris. As a follower of Christ, I see it less as luck and chance and more of God’s providence, which still should keep me from thinking that any success I accomplish is less about me and more about God’s sovereignty.
•  Hubris is defined as excessive pride that brings down a hero, or…outrageous arrogance that inflicts suffering upon the innocent.
• The real lesson is that Circuit City left itself exposed by not revitalizing its electronic superstores with as much passion and intensity as when it first began building that business two decades earlier. Reminds me what was written to the church in Ephesus in Revalation 2.
• No company can consistently grow revenues faster than its ability to get enough of the right people to implement that growth and still become a great company. Reminds me of my study through a book called Deliberate Simplicity (click to read my review).  
• When bureaucratic rules erode an ethic freedom and responsibility within a framework of core values and demanding standards, you’ve become infected with the disease of mediocrity.
• Every person in a key seat should be able to respond to the question, ” What do you do?” not with a job title, but with a statement of personal responsibility.
• Our research across multiple studies (Good to Great, Built to Last, How the Mighty Fall, and our ongoing research into what it takes to prevail in turbulent environments) shows a distinct negative correlation between building great companies and going outside for a CEO.

I could go on and on. This was a really insightful book.  MUCH shorter that his last book Good to Great. If you’re involved in organizational leadership at any level I highly recommend this book for your consideration.