Vitamins and Vaccines

Companies, like all other human institutions, are living beings. They are born, grow, mature, age and die. As living beings, they are subject to a life cycle that will take them from birth to death, passing through a multiplicity of intermediate stages. This paper explores the role that a management team plays in the vitality of their companies, in their aging or rejuvenation, and in the lengthening or shortening of their lives far beyond what would be "genetically" expected. Good management results in longer life cycles, and in a more prolonged stage of mature youth. As managers, we have the responsibility, and also the tools, in the form of vitamins and vaccines, to create healthy companies, and to heal companies that show symptoms of disease.