Serial Innovators

"The average life expectancy at "birth" of a firm is roughly 15 years, and only one out of twenty lives longer than fifty years.

Firms are born, they grow, then they struggle to keep up with changing markets. Slow adapters often become big losers, fall by the wayside, and die. Serial Innovators studies the factors affecting the aging of firms, particularly those that slow down their ability to adapt to changes in the marketplace. The book reviews recent findings in relevant academic fields—behavioral economics, psychology, neuroscience, organizational science, network theory, anthropology, sociology, and strategy—to understand how firms, as they grow, develop rigidities that prevent change.

It develops a model of organization that is adaptive, innovative, and can create significant value for its stakeholders for long periods of time".

Foreword ix

Prologue xi

Introduction xiii

Part I The Ephemeral Nature of Firms

Chapter 1 Meet Carl Berger 3

Chapter 2 Corporate Life Cycle 11

Part II Individual Rigidities

Chapter 3 To Err is Human 25

Chapter 4 The Greatest of All Time 39

Chapter 5 Rewiring Brains 55

Part III Organizational Rigidities

Chapter 6 Long Live Bureaucracy! 75

Chapter 7 In Brain We Trust 97

Chapter 8 What We Value 111

Chapter 9 What Not to Pay For 121

Chapter 10 Fast Learners 131

Part IV Serial Innovators

Chapter 11 The Secrets of Serial Innovators 139

Chapter 12 Beyond Business: The Medici, Oxford, and the Catholic Church 155

Chapter 13 Legacy through Leadership 161

Afterword 167

Appendix A: Analysis of the Top 50 U.S. Firms of 1960 171

Appendix B: Corporate Aging and Survival 177

Appendix C: Key Questions for Transforming Your Firm 181

References 187

Acknowledgments 193

About the Author 195

Index 197

"With a guide for building the ultimate firm and making it last, Feser's book offers fresh insights into the need for change." (Director, April 2012)

CLAUDIO FESER is a Director of McKinsey & Company, where he leads the McKinsey CEO Network, a practice of the company that focuses on CEO training and coaching. Feser previously managed McKinsey offices in Switzerland and Greece. During his career, he has advised the CEOs of some of the world's largest and most renowned companies.

SERIAL INNOVATORS

Firms are like living organisms. They're born, they grow, and then they struggle to survive. In today's high-stakes, survival-of-the-fittest economy, keeping up with changing markets marks the difference between businesses that flourish and those that flounder and fold. Serial Innovators: Firms That Change the World examines the aging process of the firm, identifying and explaining the factors that slow down its ability to adapt to an ever-evolving marketplace. Reviewing recent findings from across diverse academic fields—including economics, psychology, neuroscience, sociology, and many others—the book presents an exciting new understanding of how growing firms develop rigidities that prevent change. And how to resist them.

Using these findings, author and business administration expert Claudio Feser develops a model of organization that is adaptive, is innovative, and creates value for all stakeholders over long periods of time, forming a practical guide for building the ultimate firm, able to withstand market changes. The book combines the fictive, engaging story of a young and ambitious CEO who struggles to save his company from failure with short, insightful, academically thorough reviews of recent developments in research related to company adaptation, innovation, and growth, to make complex material easily accessible. To be successful, a firm must be able to adapt and thrive in dynamic markets and to continuously reinvent itself, and this book shows how.

The average life expectancy of a firm is roughly fifteen years, and only one out of twenty firms lasts longer than fifty years. Designed for anyone with an interest in finance, economics, and business administration, Serial Innovators is the must-have book if you're looking to beat those odds.