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2008 - Year the icons fell

"Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown"

Icons, Kings, Ideals, Idols, Stars, and Models call them what you will, but they have had tough time holding on to their position on top of the influence-pyramid. Many vanished, some fell apart and some brutally torn apart. It has been a tumultuous year for the establishment. Seems the natural cyclical forces that clean the environment decided to take up matters into own hands and cleared a significant portion of Top 100 influentials' of 2007.

The corporate sectors' 2008 diary is littered with the epithets of once great and mighty corporations that are no more. The billion dollar corporations that were on the Top10 lists of their industry simply vanished under the perfect storm that hit 2008.

Factually, the fall of the companies started out some in 2006 itself, but it was not indistinguishable from the normal M&A activity, nothing that will raise red flags on the radar. The seminal event that perhaps triggered the fear psychosis in 2008 was the collapse of Bear Sterns. Once mighty firm was sold off over the weekend and for the fraction of the price it traded few months before. If there was an event that instilled the fear and alerted the financial world of the risks that lay ahead, it was this.

Experts had warned of the industry being hit by the sub-prime crisis and they were proven true. But the collapse of Bear Sterns started the domino effect that would crumple dozen or more biggies over next few months. Bear Sterns overnight became the poster boy of the sub-prime insanity and its collapse; this lead to steep fall in the prices of these bonds and derivatives which triggered several other corporate wipe-outs.

Several giants like Wachovia, Washington Mutual, Freddie Mac, and Fannie Mae etc were in endless trouble. Giants like Merrill Lynch and Lehman Brothers and many more dint survive in the 2008. Automakers too.

The year also ended the reign of many people who were considered indisputable in their professions. Miller, Maddoff, and even India's Raju and countless others fell from their high perch. Its nature way of saying no matter how great the people are they are still mortals.

There are many icons that gained and established in this crisis like Warren Buffet, JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Jamie Dimon etc. It's not the end of the world, just a leveling of it. Peter Grandich said it well; that 2008 made him realize that no matter what his stature was he still wore his pants one leg at a time, just like everybody else. The year was a great leveler.

Many great institutions fell down and many more will be created in coming years. 2008 was the year when old icons gave way to the new ones.

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