Corporate Trauma: The toxic legacy of a crisis

All too often organizations appoint a new CEO to turnaround their fortunes, only to see a familiar pattern of failure repeated with each new strategy. Is this simply a case of poor leadership, or are there more complex issues at play? John Oliver’s ground-breaking book introduces the provocative concept of ‘Corporate Trauma’, arguing that conventional turnaround playbooks often miss a critical element…the lingering impact of a past corporate crisis. Drawing inspiration from the biological field of Epigenetics, where an inherited generational trauma results from an environmental stress event, Corporate Trauma posits that a significant organizational shock can result in adaptive and embedded dysfunctional patterns deep within an organization’s cultural DNA. Through original case studies, this book offers a vital new diagnostic lens for leaders and consultants to understand why companies get trapped in a downward spiral of decline, identifying the entrenched negative attitudes and behaviors that act as a hidden killer of corporate turnarounds. By moving beyond the classic turnaround playbook to identify the ‘root cause’ of persistent corporate failure, Corporate Trauma offers an invaluable path to success that will drive strategic renewal and inject ‘vitality’ back into any struggling organization.