Kodak's collapse is conventionally explained as a failure to adapt to digital photography - a company that missed the technology shift and paid the price.

That is the canopy story. The root story is more unsettling: Kodak invented the digital camera in 1975, tracked the transition for decades, and still didn’t act. Did it really fail to see the future? Or was it incapable of reaching it?

WeWork's collapse is conventionally explained as the story of a charismatic but reckless founder, unchecked by governance, enabled by a credulous investor, brought down by a disastrous IPO filing that exposed the gap between narrative and numbers.

That is the canopy story. The root story begins earlier, runs deeper, and reveals something more instructive than founder excess: an organisation that confused the performance of health with health itself, and built a $47 billion valuation on the difference.

GE's collapse is conventionally explained as the result of over-reliance on GE Capital, compounded by the 2008 financial crisis and a series of strategic miscalculations under Jeffrey Immelt.

That is the canopy story. The root story begins in 1981, runs for nearly forty years, and was fully visible in the organisational record long before a single financial metric reflected it.