This week, we highlight The Boston Consulting Group’s piece Die Another Day: What Leaders Can Do About the Shrinking Life Expectancy of Corporations. This article identifies the following trends as it relates to the life expectancy of corporations:
- Company life spans are shrinking. Public companies traded in the US now have a one-in-three chance of not successfully surviving the next five years
- Companies are not just dying younger; they're also more likely to perish at any point in time. Almost one-tenth of all public companies fail each year, a fourfold increase since 1965
- It's a broad-based phenomenon: most types of businesses in most industries run the risk of dying younger
- To defy the odds and ensure longevity and prosperity for their companies, leaders need to build governance models oriented to multiple time scales