How to explain that a company with an undeniably successful history stumbles and then suddenly collapses when faced with a market disruption or a crisis situation? Philippe Silberzahn explains this phenomenon through the mental models that we build with experience. To define our strategies, we make hypotheses. If these hypotheses are confirmed, they progressively become beliefs — that are then a struggle to question when the context changes.

Hence these three valuable pieces of advice to keep in mind:

• “Nurture your identity without clinging onto it” — this is what Kodak failed to do; it was so attached to its business model that it failed to see the threat of digital photography, contrary to Fuji film, which reinvented itself around its core chemical business.

• “Learn to put consensus on hold”, as John F. Kennedy was able to do during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

• “Beware of your own authority”, as Amazon founder and leader Jeff Bezos does, who always talks last to prevent his own ideas from imposing themselves onto others.

Source: Trois croyances qui empêchent les entreprises d’affronter une crise [Three beliefs that prevent companies from facing a crisis], Philippe Silberzahn, Polytechnique insight, November 2022.