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<p>Foreword ix</p> <p>Prologue xi</p> <p>Introduction xiii</p> <p><b>Part I The Ephemeral Nature of Firms</b></p> <p>Chapter 1 Meet Carl Berger 3</p> <p>Chapter 2 Corporate Life Cycle 11</p> <p><b>Part II Individual Rigidities</b></p> <p>Chapter 3 To Err is Human 25</p> <p>Chapter 4 The Greatest of All Time 39</p> <p>Chapter 5 Rewiring Brains 55</p> <p><b>Part III Organizational Rigidities</b></p> <p>Chapter 6 Long Live Bureaucracy! 75</p> <p>Chapter 7 In Brain We Trust 97</p> <p>Chapter 8 What We Value 111</p> <p>Chapter 9 What Not to Pay For 121</p> <p>Chapter 10 Fast Learners 131</p> <p><b>Part IV Serial Innovators</b></p> <p>Chapter 11 The Secrets of Serial Innovators 139</p> <p>Chapter 12 Beyond Business: The Medici, Oxford, and the Catholic Church 155</p> <p>Chapter 13 Legacy through Leadership 161</p> <p>Afterword 167</p> <p>Appendix A: Analysis of the Top 50 U.S. Firms of 1960 171</p> <p>Appendix B: Corporate Aging and Survival 177</p> <p>Appendix C: Key Questions for Transforming Your Firm 181</p> <p>References 187</p> <p>Acknowledgments 193</p> <p>About the Author 195</p> <p>Index 197</p>

<p><b>CLAUDIO FESER</b> is a Director of McKinsey & Company, where he leads the McKinsey CEO Network, a practice of the company that focuses on CEO training and coaching. Feser previously managed McKinsey offices in Switzerland and Greece. During his career, he has advised the CEOs of some of the world's largest and most renowned companies.

<p><b>SERIAL INNOVATORS</b> <p>Firms are like living organisms. They're born, they grow, and then they struggle to survive. In today's high-stakes, survival-of-the-fittest economy, keeping up with changing markets marks the difference between businesses that flourish and those that flounder and fold. <i>Serial Innovators: Firms That Change the World</i> examines the aging process of the firm, identifying and explaining the factors that slow down its ability to adapt to an ever-evolving marketplace. Reviewing recent findings from across diverse academic fields—including economics, psychology, neuroscience, sociology, and many others—the book presents an exciting new understanding of how growing firms develop rigidities that prevent change. And how to resist them. <p>Using these findings, author and business administration expert Claudio Feser develops a model of organization that is adaptive, is innovative, and creates value for all stakeholders over long periods of time, forming a practical guide for building the ultimate firm, able to withstand market changes. The book combines the fictive, engaging story of a young and ambitious CEO who struggles to save his company from failure with short, insightful, academically thorough reviews of recent developments in research related to company adaptation, innovation, and growth, to make complex material easily accessible. To be successful, a firm must be able to adapt and thrive in dynamic markets and to continuously reinvent itself, and this book shows how. <p>The average life expectancy of a firm is roughly fifteen years, and only one out of twenty firms lasts longer than fifty years. Designed for anyone with an interest in finance, economics, and business administration, <i>Serial Innovators</i> is the must-have book if you're looking to beat those odds.

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