Repeatability

R EPEATA BILI T Y

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Our case examples led to the same conclusion. Many well-

documented studies by business historians reveal how suc-

cessful business models can breed the seeds of their own

rigidity, lack of learning, and eventual decline through compla-

cency, hubris, a lack of willingness to question basic assump-

tions, and other human foibles. The travails of Kodak, Xerox,

General Motors, AOL, Sony, U.S. Steel, Sainsbury’s, LEGO (in

the 1980s and ’90s), Nokia, Dell, Microsoft (with regard to

the role of the Internet), and Kmart can be seen in this light,

as cases of “arrested adaptation”—fantastic formulas that did

not change fast enough and ended up in catch-up mode. Most

of these examples, we should note, were not cases ...