Sagan, in his quote was, of course, referring to animals and other various organisms. To that end, according to the research literature, 99.9% of all species, amounting to over five billion, that have ever lived on Earth, have gone extinct. And if the statistics are accurate, the human race is accelerating that rate of extinction by 1,000 times. But that is another subject. Of course, while describing businesses as “living organisms” is definitely a stretch, businesses most certainly do go extinct.
For example, only 30% of family businesses survive into the second generation, 12% make it to the third generation and only 3% survive into the fourth. Additionally, in general, more than 70% of businesses fail within the first ten years and only 5% survive past thirty years. Additionally, almost half of the 25 companies that were worthy of inclusion in Tom Peters book, “In Search of Excellence”, no longer exist or are in dire straits.
Clearly, the business landscape is a dangerous place – fraught with perils, challenges and threats. And of all the reasons that one can attribute to success and avoiding extinction, a top-flight senior leadership team is almost always at the core of it all.
Born exactly 89 years ago this month, Sagan has pointed out a rather sobering fact. Extinction appears to be the rule – unless your company is the rare exception! Perhaps it is worth considering what steps to take in order to ensure you are not on the wrong side of his statistics?
Perform Better!
