Book Summary - The Living Company by Arie de Geus

"If you look at them in light of what they could be, however, most commercial corporations are underachievers. They exist at an early stage of evolution; they develop and exploit only a small fraction of their potential. Consider their high mortality rate.  By 1983, one-third of the 1970 Fortune 500 companies had been acquired or broken into pieces, or had merged with other companies."

(The Living Company, Harvard Business Review, 00178012, Mar/Apr97, Vol. 75, Issue 2)

Why do so many companies die young? Mounting evidence suggests that corporations fail because their policies and practices are based too heavily on the thinking and the language of economics.

In a groundbreaking book and article Arie de Geus, former head of planning for Shell, says: