Icarus Paradox
If measures to guard against the dangers of the Icarus Paradox (Miller, 1992) are relatively straightforward, then why do so many organisations fall prey to it?
The Icarus paradox is a neologism coined by Danny Miller. The term refers to the phenomenon of businesses failing abruptly after a period of apparent success (Miller, 1990) (The Icarus Paradox), where this failure is brought about by the very elements that led to their initial success. It alludes to Icarus of Greek mythology, who drowned after flying too close to the Sun. The failure of the very wings that allowed him to escape imprisonment and soar through the skies was what ultimately led to his demise, hence the paradox.
Success leads to specialization and exaggeration, to confidence and complacency, to dogma and ritual. Many of the most dramatically successful organizations are so prone to failure. It appears that when taken to excess the same things that drive success; focused, tried and true strategies, confident leadership, galvanized corporate cultures and especially the interplay of all these element. Many outstanding organizations follows such paths of deadly momentum, time-bomb trajectories of attitudes, policies, and events that lead to falling sales, plummeting profits, even bankruptcy. These companies extend and amplify the strategies to which they credit their success.
The Four Trajectories of Failure; CRAFTSMEN, BUILDERS, PIONEERS, and SALESMEN were all susceptible to their own trajectories (Miller, 1992) (The Icarus Paradox: How Exceptional Companies Bring About Their Own Downfall), and each type of firms followed remarkably parallel paths, albeit at differing speeds. Excellent businesses are driven toward extremes along two dimensions, scope and change. Scope the range of products and target market. Firms that excel by focusing on a particular product or market ultimately ends up relying on too narrow a set of customers, products, and issues. These conservative firms
The Icarus paradox is a neologism coined by Danny Miller. The term refers to the phenomenon of businesses failing abruptly after a period of apparent success (Miller, 1990) (The Icarus Paradox), where this failure is brought about by the very elements that led to their initial success. It alludes to Icarus of Greek mythology, who drowned after flying too close to the Sun. The failure of the very wings that allowed him to escape imprisonment and soar through the skies was what ultimately led to his demise, hence the paradox.
Success leads to specialization and exaggeration, to confidence and complacency, to dogma and ritual. Many of the most dramatically successful organizations are so prone to failure. It appears that when taken to excess the same things that drive success; focused, tried and true strategies, confident leadership, galvanized corporate cultures and especially the interplay of all these element. Many outstanding organizations follows such paths of deadly momentum, time-bomb trajectories of attitudes, policies, and events that lead to falling sales, plummeting profits, even bankruptcy. These companies extend and amplify the strategies to which they credit their success.
The Four Trajectories of Failure; CRAFTSMEN, BUILDERS, PIONEERS, and SALESMEN were all susceptible to their own trajectories (Miller, 1992) (The Icarus Paradox: How Exceptional Companies Bring About Their Own Downfall), and each type of firms followed remarkably parallel paths, albeit at differing speeds. Excellent businesses are driven toward extremes along two dimensions, scope and change. Scope the range of products and target market. Firms that excel by focusing on a particular product or market ultimately ends up relying on too narrow a set of customers, products, and issues. These conservative firms