Definition
“The Icarus Factor” is the 14th episode of the second season of the American science fiction television series Star Trek: The Next Generation, the 40th episode overall, first broadcast on April 24, 1989.
Icarus Factor
What is ‘Icarus Factor’
The term Icarus factor describes a situation where managers or executives initiate an overly ambitious project which then fails. Fueled by excitement for the project, the executives are unable to reign in their misguided enthusiasm before it is too late to avoid the failure.
Explaining ‘Icarus Factor’
In Greek mythology, Icarus and his father, Daedalus, were imprisoned in Crete by King Minos. Daedalus created two sets of wings made from wax and feathers. He and his son were to use them to escape by flying. Daedalus warned his son not to fly too close to the sun. Icarus was overcome with the excitement of flying and disregarded his father’s warning. He flew higher and higher, approaching the sun. As the wax melted and the feathers fell, so too did Icarus fall to his death in what is now called the Icarian Sea, near Icaria, an island southwest of Samos.
Further Reading
- Onartuzumab in lung cancer: the fall of Icarus? – www.tandfonline.com [PDF]
- Introduction: The Icarus paradox in Korean business and management – www.tandfonline.com [PDF]
- Icarus revisited: tropical forests, REDD+ and ecosystem dynamics – www.tandfonline.com [PDF]
- Risk factors for impulse control disorders and related behaviors in Parkinson's disease: secondary analyses of the ICARUS study – www.tandfonline.com [PDF]
- Rescuing Icarus: the European Commission's approach to dealing with failing firms and sectors in distress – www.tandfonline.com [PDF]
- Icarus and American corporate regulation – heinonline.org [PDF]
- 9 The flight of Icarus? – books.google.com [PDF]
