Survival – The Reason I am going to LESS 2011
![Image](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWmau15IJqcX0aNKSvvEaFKUCxlNs2o7DqoDLjJf6TVOrmd_S7LAcQ5TDQgzg1Hur8o9KQBRqkKUUl3Wm5dclv0BMXev2v50OaB8ZYW1Cy-wXB2C6HETZIrfvXDsGKFNGuMCuZ/s400/corporate_life_expectancy.003.png)
There are plenty of good reasons to go to the LESS 2011 management conference . Most of them have to do with fun–not clowning around fun (which has its merits)–but with the doing-meaningful-work and living a life of purpose kind of fun. However, there is another reason: Survival! According to John Hagell III , in 1937 the average life expectancy of a Standards & Poor Fortune 500 company was 75 years. Today, it is about 15 years. Let's be a little bit simplistic about this, and draw a straight line between the two data points. Then let's be a bit adventurous, and extrapolate into the future. If this simple projection holds, by 2030, there won't be any S&P Fortune 500 companies. I am sure you can see the flaws in this simple model as well as I can: There are only two data points. It is very easy to draw the wrong conclusions when using to few data points. (Though many companies are perfectly happy to use a single data point, which enables them to interpret i