cadena critica

In Autumn 2004, I received a phone call from Frances Hesselbein, founding president of the Leader to Leader Institute.
"The Conference Board and the Leader to Leader Institute would like you to come to West Point to lead a discussion with some great students," she said.
"And who are the students?" I asked, envisioning perhaps a group of cadets.
"Twelve U.S. Army generals, 12 CEOs, and 12social sector leaders," explained Hesselbein. "They'll be sitting in groups of six, two from each sector—military, business, social—and they'll really want to dialogue about the topic."
"And what's the topic?"
"Oh, it's a good one. I think you'll really like it." She paused. "America."
America? What could I possibly teach this esteemed group about America? Then I remembered what one of my mentors,Bill Lazier, told me about effective teaching: Don't try to come up with the right answers; focus on coming up with good questions.
I pondered and puzzled and finally settled upon the question: Is America renewing its greatness, or is America dangerously on the cusp of falling from great to good? While I intended the question to be rhetorical (I believe America carries a responsibility tocontinuously renew itself, and it has met that responsibility throughout its history), the West Point gathering nonetheless erupted into an intense debate. Half of the participants argued that America stands as strong as ever, while the other half contended that America teeters on the edge of decline.
History shows, repeatedly, that the mighty can fall. The Egyptian Old Kingdom, the Chou Dynasty, theHittite Empire—all fell. Athens fell. Rome fell. Even Britain, which stood a century before as a global superpower, saw its position erode. Is that the U.S.'s fate? Or will America always find a way to meet Lincoln's challenge to be the last best hope of Earth?
At a break, the chief executive of one of America's most successful companies pulled me aside. "I've been thinking about your question inthe context of my company all morning," he said. "We've had tremendous success in recent years, and I worry about that. So what I want to know is: How would you know?"
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"When you are at the top of the world, the most powerful nation on Earth, the most successful company in your industry, the best player in your game, your very power and success might cover up the factthat you're already on the path of decline." That question—how would you know?—captured my imagination and became part of the inspiration for this book.
THE SILENT CREEP OF DOOM
At our research lab, we'd already been discussing the possibility of a project on corporate decline, in part because some of the great companies we'd profiled in the books Good to Great and Built to Last had subsequentlylost their positions of prominence. On one level this fact didn't cause much angst; just because a company falls doesn't invalidate what we can learn by studying that company when it was at its historical best.
But on another level I found myself becoming increasingly curious: How do the mighty fall? If some of the greatest companies in history can go from iconic to irrelevant, what might welearn by studying their demise, and how can others avoid their fate? I returned from West Point inspired to turn idle curiosity into an active quest. Might it be possible to detect decline early and reverse course—or even better, might we be able to practice preventive medicine?
I've come to see institutional decline like a disease: harder to detect but easier to cure in the early stages; easier todetect but harder to cure in the later stages. An institution can look strong on the outside but already be sick on the inside, dangerously on the cusp of a precipitous fall.
Consider the rise and fall of one of the most storied companies in U.S. business history.
In the wake of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, A.P. Giannini, founder of the fledgling Bank of Italy, found himself at odds with...