Managing Corporate Lifecycles

I see that the e-version is only 12 pages and has received very poor reviews. I can understand since I cannot imagine how one could condense the wisdom of this book into so few pages. That said, I can't say enough about the hard cover version. I have read it twice and it should be read by anyone in business leadership. There are few books that are "transcendental" in nature and this is one of those for me. The clarity that Adizes paints into the start-up, growth, increased control, and slide-into-irrelevance phases of the corporate lifecycle is brilliant. He will give you insight into "seeing" these stages and avoiding the mistakes of others. I hope that others will separate the e-version as described, from the real thing that is the book.

This book (an updated, improved version of Adizes' 1988 "Corporate Lifecycles") has given me an extremely useful framework for thinking about and improving the organization I work with. In the Adizes framework, my organization would be considered in Early Adolescence, and a turbulent Adolescence at that. What Adizes has helped me to more clearly see is that some of our turbulence is predictable and structural, just as each stage in the typical corporate lifecycle features problems that are normal (as well as problems that are abnormal or pathological). Furthermore, Adizes doesn't stop at diagnosis; he offers prescriptions for anticipating and addressing the tensions inherent in moving from one stage in the lifecycle to another. As a founder of more than one company, Adizes is also refreshingly candid about the difficulty founders face in helping their companies move through the stages. ("It's hard to see the picture when you're in it.") Adizes has helped me to articulate critiques and advocate solutions that I have long sensed dimly, but couldn't adequately pinpoint. Here's a great resource for your leadership team to discuss at a retreat or planning session -- and then to act upon.