Creative Destruction

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A Senior Partner and an Innovation Specialist from McKinsey & Company challenge the belief that enduring, high-performing companies can consistently excel. They argue that to remain competitive, these corporations must embrace dynamic strategies of discontinuity and creative destruction. Drawing on extensive research of over a thousand companies across various industries over thirty-six years, they reveal that even the most admired firms struggle to sustain market-beating performance beyond ten to fifteen years. Their studies indicate that the ideal of a consistently outperforming company is a myth. Traditional management philosophies, rooted in continuity, hinder corporations from adapting to rapid market changes. Foster and Kaplan propose a radical new paradigm, advocating for a redesign of corporations to match the pace of capital markets rather than merely function efficiently. They illustrate how companies like Johnson & Johnson, Enron, Corning, and GE are breaking free from cultural "lock-in" by transforming their operations, creating new businesses, divesting underperforming divisions, and adopting innovative decision-making processes. For corporations to achieve sustained superior returns, they must become as dynamic and responsive as the market itself. This groundbreaking perspective promises to reshape conventional business thinking.