Influx

Last Friday at the The Long Now Foundation, UCLA Professor and author, Jared Diamond gave a fascinating talk on how
societies collapse.

His research has led him to the conclusion, that in many cases, it was environmental problems that cause societies to tumble. Problems that could have been avoided if people had planned ahead; for example he describes how the ancient Easter Island’s decline started when the islanders chopped down the last tree.

Overall, his concludes that there are two root causes for the collapse of societies.

1. The Isolation of the Elite

The people in power, who are running the country, loose touch with the mood, feelings and issues that the rest of the population faces.

2. Failure to Adapt the Core Values

Societies are founded with a set of principals or values. If these values don’t change or aren’t updated to be relevant to the age, the society can fall.

Not surprisingly, there’s an interesting parallel here for brands, as it’s often for the same two reasons that they collapse; the people running the organization loose touch with their customers and the brand’s relevance declines because it fails to update its core values.