Adizes' Corporate Lifecycle

Identifying the Patterns of Growth and Decline

Guide your organization through its lifecycle.

© iStockphoto/N_design

Companies are like living beings: they're born, they grow, they enter a prime state, and then, eventually, they go into decline.

So, how can you guide your own company through to its prime state, and avoid the problems that can lead to decline?

Adizes's Corporate Lifecycle model helps you do this. We'll look at it in this article.

About the Tool

Dr Ichak Adizes, founder and director of the Adizes Institute, wrote about the Corporate Lifecycle model in his 1990 book, "Corporate Lifecycles." He updated the model in 2004 in the follow-up book, "Managing Corporate Lifecycles."

Dr Adizes traced the path of large and small organizations, and realized that most go through a predictable cycle of growth and change.

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