Companies that can both execute and adapt are very rare indeed

From The Adaptable Corporation by Eric D. Beinhocker.

We thus have, on the one side, high-performing executers that can't sustain their performance and, on the other, long-term adapters that don't perform well. Companies that can both execute and adapt are very rare indeed. Wiggins and Ruefli found that fewer than 0.5 percent of the companies in their sample stayed in the top stratum for more than 20 years. Only three companies - American Home Products, Eli Lilly, and 3M, or 0.04 percent of the whole - made it to the 50-year mark. (This sample didn't include multibusiness companies, such as GE.)