HOW THE MIGHTY FALL

Jim Collins

How the Mighty Fall is a book written by Jim Collins and published in 2009, who has researched great businesses and how they became strong.  In his latest volume, Collins explores why great companies and businesses implode and meet their demise. This is an easy read and I enjoyed the study immensely.


As a minister and an associational missionary, I could not help but apply the principles he uncovered to churches and charitable organizations.  He outlined 5 stages of decline:
1.  Hubris born out of success.  He describes "hubris" as an outrageous arrogance.  Churches (and associations, conventions, synods, etc.) can perceive themselves invincible to decline due to past successful runs.
2.  Undisciplined pursuit of more.  
3.  Denial of risk and peril.
4.  Grasping for salvation.  This is about trying to find a silver bullet to save the organization from decline.
5.  Capitulation to Irrelevance or death.


The volume is a sobering look at what happened to some industry giants such as Hewlett/Packard, Zenith, Scott Paper, and Circuit City, as they followed the path of decline to their demise.  I found that the same principles of the outlined path above apply to churches founded with higher purposes and vision.  I also saw how churches can decline and virtually die as they lose their focus on why God put the church here in the first place.   

There is an interesting alternative ending concept that can substitute for "Capitulation to Irrelevance or Death" and that is "Well Founded Hope". The "Hope" is the great chance of turnaround for the organization if it will stop grasping for silver bullets and return to its core principles and its original purpose.  If it gets back on mission and off its pursuit of more, it has a great chance of recovering the direction it lost.  That appears to be true if you are building automobiles or electronic products, or if you are a church seeking to be On Mission to your World.