Escaping the Collapse Trap: Remaining Capable Without Capabilities

What is it about?

This paper seeks to explain the steps managers can take to break a cycle of instability, to address the research question: how can organizations remain capable when their capabilities are gone? The focus lies in iterative sequence of actions taken as the firm pre-emptively dismantles capabilities as resources decline, survives collapse of resources allowing other assets to come to the fore and then forms and develops new opportunities through collective actions from individual competency.

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Why is it important?

So often, setbacks are framed as an indication of failure. Yet, the firm that tackles daunting obstacles head on and eventually carves a market niche for itself, earning modest or even promising returns, is judged as courageous. The same firm, tackling the same obstacles but failing to gain eventual traction is often judged, in hindsight, as foolish, as if the futility of such an attempt was easily apparent at the time. The cycle breaking outcome is described here as escaping the collapse trap, a phrase perhaps more resonant with practitioners who live with the consequences of set-backs.

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