No matter how successful your brand is now, it will probably die. That’s the forecast from Jim Collins in this insightful article about life and death on the Fortune 500. In it he points out that over 2000 companies have appeared on the list since its inception in 1955. But of the 500 that appeared on that first list, only 71 are still going at the time he is writing (2008). That’s an 86% disappearance rate.
Collins’ key point is that making the list actually means nothing, because getting there says nothing, and guarantees nothing, about your ability to survive. Some of the companies that loom large now weren’t even around in 1955 – e.g. all the technology companies – and some, which were lauded and celebrated then, including Scott Paper, Zenith, Teledyne, Warner Lambert and Bethlehem Steel are nowhere to be found..
Thirty years ago, Ames Department Stores and Wal-Mart had the same business model and were flourishing. Today, Ames is gone and Wal-Mart is ranked number one.
Near the end of his piece, Collins observes “all products, services, markets, and even specific solutions to social problems eventually become obsolete. But that does not mean that the organizations and societies that produce them must themselves become obsolete and irrelevant.”
Life moves on. A lot of brands don’t.
If you tie who you are to what you do and where you operate, you’re a funeral waiting to happen. Your organisation must be about more than those things if you are to survive. The history lesson is that many didn’t think beyond what they did, and as a result they don’t exist now. That’s the price of redundant excellence.
Will your company still be around in 60 years?