2. Looping. Most ideas go through a roller coaster ride of peaks of success followed by valleys of near collapse before they become viable—capable of separate existence.

3. Success. At this stage, the enterprise is viable. This means it understands as an organism how to maintain its metabolism from month to month, and how to grow.

3a. Overshoot and Collapse. If the enterprise does not learn how to maintain homeostasis, it may overshoot its envelope of healthy growth and then rapidly collapse upon itself. This stage is sometimes called the “Hollywood Star” syndrome.

4. Entrepreneurial Button. Newly conceived ideas within an existing Enterprise, even if tested through the looping stage, cannot become viable unless the Entrepreneurial Button is pushed. There must be an overt recognition of the need for and value of the new idea or it will not be allowed to grow.

5. Maturity. The Enterprise passes through probably its longest and most stable stage. This is also the most favorable time for spawning new enterprises although many ventures fail to do so until it’s almost too late...

6. Turnaround. Ventures lose their ability to maintain homeostasis and begin to collapse. Usually this is due to a lag time in the organization’s ability to respond to or anticipate external or internal rates of change: it falls behind or leaps too far ahead and is exposed. Careful crafting allows the organization to return to the Maturity stage.

7. Death. Eventually all organizations reach their demise. Usually this is good. Sometimes it’s the easiest way for the enterprise to allow new ideas to escape and try for viability. And even if the name of the corporation does not change, sometimes, its old self dies and a new one is born in its place.

Green stands for times of stability and success. Orange stands for warning. Red indicates behavior far from homeostasis, which if allowed to continue, will lead to the death of the system. Blue represents times of flux around the entrepreneurial button.

(source)