What Keeps a Company Alive?

The Reinvention Reckoning

Change used to come in seasons, now it comes in seconds.

The average business model once lasted 75 years. By 1989, it dropped to 15. Today, most industries must reinvent every two to three years, sometimes every quarter. So how do the few that thrive keep doing it?
Dr. Nadya Zhexembayeva’s research found three rules:

Plan for turbulence.
Disruption isn’t an interruption, it’s part of the week.

Reinvent early.
Wait until decline, and you have a 10% chance of recovery.

Make reinvention routine.
Not a one-off transformation, but a cycle that never stops.

The companies that live by these rules don’t wait for calm. They find rhythm in the storm, not by chasing perfection, but by practicing reinvention, again and again.

Because survival isn’t the goal anymore. Evolution is.

Still Standing…for Now

Why do some companies collapse while others come out stronger?

It isn’t technology that kills them, it’s timing, and denial. Most organisations already hold the tools they need to survive. Kodak did. They invented digital photography but refused to reinvent themselves.

In 2025, bankruptcies hit their highest level since 2010. One university in the U.S. now closes every week. Since 2000, 52% of Fortune 500 companies have vanished, and 60% of public companies have never created real economic value.

Inside the workplace, the pattern is just as dire. The average employee now faces 10 planned transformations per year, up from two in 2016. Only 43% say they’ll back their company’s next big change, while 62% quietly disengage and 15% actively sabotage their teams, not out of malice, but fatigue.

Yet amid the chaos, around 10% of organisations reinvent and emerge stronger, more profitable, more resilient, more human. 

They share one belief: uncertainty isn’t a storm to outlast, it’s the climate we live in.

Reinvention, then, isn’t a project or a “turnaround.” It’s a habit, a daily rhythm.
Like brushing your teeth. Miss it, and your systems start to decay.

The bravest companies don’t wait for things to fall apart. They reinvent while things still work, because staying alive isn’t about control anymore. It’s about consciousness.