Sherpa Alliance

• " We’re heading into a world characterized by big events, big forces, and massive storms. We’re going to be vulnerable little specks high on the mountain when the storm hits out of nowhere. And if we’re not prepared, we’re going to die up there. Or we’re going to be in real serious trouble.  We need to understand what separates those who do well from those who don’t do well when the world spins completely out of our control. We just finished six years of what we call our turbulence research".
• "We are now, I think, having to adjust to dealing with a world that is going to be ferocious. We don’t have any practice with that.  What I’ve learned from the turbulence research has already started to affect my life. I’ve become a total paranoid, neurotic freak. It has shown me the importance of building in big shock absorbers".

[Excerpts from an interview with Jim Collins in April 2009’s Inc Magazine, entitled, "How to Thrive in 2009"]

That’s what our work is about in Sherpa Alliance - helping you understand what separates those that do well and those that don’t do well "high on the mountain", helping you get prepared, with load carrying support for mountainous journeys. Our In the Driving Seat concept-suite, model-set and toolbox helps you understand the whole problem and solution of being In the Driving Seat of Organizational Agility - helping you be "building big shock absorbers", and the rest of a chassis/vehicle which is fit for the journey challenge.  Agility by design.

In his latest book, "How the Mighty Fall and why some companies never give in" (May 2009), Jim Collins identifies 5 stages in the longitudinal journeys of decline:

•  Hubris Born of Success
•  Undisciplined Pursuit of More
•  Denial of Risk of Peril
•  Grasping for Salvation
•  Capitulation to Irrelevance or Death

[Read longer excerpt in Business Week Magazine article, How the Mighty Fall: A Primer on the Warning Signs, including a short video of Jim Collins summarizing the 5 Stages]