Why Did Credit Suisse Fail?
167 Years of Prestige, Death by a Thousand Scandals
📜 What Happened
Credit Suisse survived two world wars but not its own culture. Archegos ($5.5B), Greensill ($10B frozen), spying scandals, a money-laundering conviction, revolving-door CEOs — each hit was 'manageable,' so nothing fundamentally changed. By 2023 clients were quietly pulling billions per week. When one major shareholder said 'absolutely not' to more capital on live TV, the run went terminal. The Swiss government forced a weekend fire-sale to rival UBS for scraps.
☠️ The Fatal Mistake
Treating each scandal as a PR problem instead of the same culture problem wearing different costumes — surviving every crisis except the pattern.
🧠 The Lesson (Free for You)
Decline is rarely one blow; it's a pattern politely tolerated. If the same category of mistake keeps happening with different names attached, the problem isn't the people — it's the incentives you refuse to fix.
📕 The Antidote Book
After studying greatness (Good to Great, Built to Last), Collins turned to autopsies: how do once-great companies die? His research found decline is NOT usually caused by competition, technology, or bad luck — it's…
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