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Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies
"This is not a book about charismatic visionary leaders. It is not about visionary product concepts or visionary products or visionary market insights. Nor is it about just having a corporate vision. This is a book about something far more important, enduring, and substantial. This is a book about visionary companies." So write Jim Collins and Jerry Porras in this groundbreaking book that shatters myths, provides new insights, and gives practical guidance to those who would like to build landmark companies that stand the test of time. Drawing upon a six-year research project at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business, Collins and Porras took eighteen truly exceptional and long-lasting companies -- they have an average age of nearly one hundred years and have outperformed the general stock market by a factor of fifteen since 1926 -- and studied each company in direct comparison to one of its top competitors. They examined the companies from their very beginnings to the present day -- as start-ups, as midsize companies, and as large corporations. Throughout, the authors asked: "What makes the truly exceptional companies different from other companies?" What separates General Electric, 3M, Merck, Wal-Mart, Hewlett-Packard, Walt Disney, and Philip Morris from their rivals? How, for example, did Procter & Gamble, which began life substantially behind rival Colgate, eventually prevail as the premier institution in its industry? How was Motorola able to move from a humble battery repair business into integrated circuits and cellular communications, while Zenith never became dominant in anything other than TVs? How did Boeing unseat McDonnell Douglas as the world's best commercial aircraft company -- what did Boeing have that McDonnell Douglas lacked? By answering such questions, Collins and Porras go beyond the incessant barrage of management buzzwords and fads of the day to discover timeless qualities that have consistently distinguished out-standing companies. They also provide inspiration to all executives and entrepreneurs by destroying the false but widely accepted idea that only charismatic visionary leaders can build visionary companies. Filled with hundreds of specific examples and organized into a coherent framework of practical concepts that can be applied by managers and entrepreneurs at all levels, Built to Last provides a master blueprint for building organizations that will prosper long into the twenty-first century and beyond.
368 pages, Hardcover
First published September 16, 1994
About the author
James C. Collins
35 books2,232 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.
Jim Collins is a student and teacher of enduring great companies — how they grow, how they attain superior performance, and how good companies can become great companies. Having invested over a decade of research into the topic, Jim has authored or co-authored four books, including the classic BUILT TO LAST, which has been a fixture on the Business Week best seller list for more than six years, and has been translated into 29 languages. His work has been featured in Fortune, The Wall Street Journal, Business Week, Harvard Business Review, and Fast Company.
Jim’s book, GOOD TO GREAT: Why Some Companies Make the Leap ... And Others Don’t, attained long-running positions on the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Business Week best seller lists, has sold 3 million hardcover copies since publication and has been translated into 35 languages, including such languages as Latvian, Mongolian and Vietnamese.
His most recent book, HOW THE MIGHTY FALL: And Why Some Companies Never Give In, was published on May 19, 2009.
Driven by a relentless curiosity, Jim began his research and teaching career on the faculty at Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he received the Distinguished Teaching Award in 1992. In 1995, he founded a management laboratory in Boulder, Colorado, where he now conducts research and teaches executives from the corporate and social sectors. Jim holds degrees in business administration and mathematical sciences from Stanford University, and honorary doctoral degrees from the University of Colorado and the Peter F. Drucker Graduate School of Management at Claremont Graduate University.
Jim has served as a teacher to senior executives and CEOs at over a hundred corporations. He has also worked with social sector organizations, such as: Johns Hopkins Medical School, the Girl Scouts of the USA, the Leadership Network of Churches, the American Association of K-12 School Superintendents, and the United States Marine Corps. In 2005 he published a monograph: Good to Great and the Social Sectors.
In addition, Jim is an avid rock climber and has made one-day ascents of the North Face of Half Dome and the Nose route on the South Face of El Capitan in Yosemite Valley. He continues to climb at the 5.13 grade.
Jim Collins is a student and teacher of enduring great companies — how they grow, how they attain superior performance, and how good companies can become great companies. Having invested over a decade of research into the topic, Jim has authored or co-authored four books, including the classic BUILT TO LAST, which has been a fixture on the Business Week best seller list for more than six years, and has been translated into 29 languages. His work has been featured in Fortune, The Wall Street Journal, Business Week, Harvard Business Review, and Fast Company.
Jim’s book, GOOD TO GREAT: Why Some Companies Make the Leap ... And Others Don’t, attained long-running positions on the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Business Week best seller lists, has sold 3 million hardcover copies since publication and has been translated into 35 languages, including such languages as Latvian, Mongolian and Vietnamese.
His most recent book, HOW THE MIGHTY FALL: And Why Some Companies Never Give In, was published on May 19, 2009.
Driven by a relentless curiosity, Jim began his research and teaching career on the faculty at Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he received the Distinguished Teaching Award in 1992. In 1995, he founded a management laboratory in Boulder, Colorado, where he now conducts research and teaches executives from the corporate and social sectors. Jim holds degrees in business administration and mathematical sciences from Stanford University, and honorary doctoral degrees from the University of Colorado and the Peter F. Drucker Graduate School of Management at Claremont Graduate University.
Jim has served as a teacher to senior executives and CEOs at over a hundred corporations. He has also worked with social sector organizations, such as: Johns Hopkins Medical School, the Girl Scouts of the USA, the Leadership Network of Churches, the American Association of K-12 School Superintendents, and the United States Marine Corps. In 2005 he published a monograph: Good to Great and the Social Sectors.
In addition, Jim is an avid rock climber and has made one-day ascents of the North Face of Half Dome and the Nose route on the South Face of El Capitan in Yosemite Valley. He continues to climb at the 5.13 grade.
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August 29, 2016
Visionary companies are premier institutions - the crown jewels - in their industries, widely admired by their peers and having a long track record of making a significant impact on the world around them. The key point is that a visionary company is an organization - an institution. All individual leaders, no matter how charismatic or visionary, eventually die; and all visionary products and services - all "great ideas" - eventually become obsolete. Indeed, entire markets can become obsolete and disappear. Yet visionary companies prosper over long periods of time, through multiple product life cycles and multiple generations of active leaders.
18 visionary companies in this study:
3M
American Express
Boeing
Citicorp
Ford
General Electric
Hewlett-Packard
IBM
Johnson & Johnson
Marriott
Merck
Motorola
Nordstrom
Philip Morris
Procter & Gamble
Sony
Wal-Mart
Walt Disney
12 Myths Shattered
Myth 1: It takes a great idea to start a great company.
Reality: Starting a company with a "great idea" might be a bad idea. Few of the visionary companies began life with a great idea. In fact, some began life without any specific idea and a few even began with outright failures. Furthermore, regardless of the founding concept, the visionary companies were significantly less likely to have early entrepreneurial success than the comparison companies in our study. Like the parable of the tortoise and the hare, visionary companies often get off to a slow start, but win the long race.
Myth 2: Visionary companies require great and charismatic visionary leaders.
Reality: A charismatic visionary leader is absolutely not required for a visionary company and, in fact, can be detrimental to a company's long-term prospects. Some of the most significant CEOs in the history of visionary companies did not fit the model of the high-profile, charismatic leader - indeed, some explicitly shied away from that model. Like the founders of the US at the Constitutional Convention, they concentrated more on architecting an enduring institution than on being a great individual leader. They sought to be clock builders, not time tellers. And they have been more this way more than CEOs at the comparison companies.
Myth 3: The most successful companies exist first and foremost to maximize profits.
Reality: Contrary to business school doctrine, "maximizing shareholder wealth" or "profit maximization" has not been the driving force or primary objective through the history of the visionary companies. Visionary companies pursue a cluster of objectives, of which making money is only one - and not necessarily the primary one. Yes, they seek profits, but they're equally guided by a core ideology - core values and sense of purpose beyond just making money. Yet, paradoxically, the visionary companies make more money than the more purely profit-driven comparison companies.
Myth 4: Visionary companies share a common subset of "correct" core values.
Reality: There is no "right" set of core values for being a visionary company. Indeed, two companies can have radically different ideologies, yet both be visionary. Core values in a visionary company don't even have to be "enlightened" or "humanistic," although they often are. The crucial variable is not the content of a company's ideology, but how deeply it believes its ideology and how consistently it lives, breathes, and expresses it in all that it does. Visionary companies do not ask, "What should we value?" They ask, "What do we actually value deep down to our toes?"
Myth 5: The only constant is change.
Reality: A visionary company almost religiously preserves its core ideology - changing it seldom, if ever. Core values in a visionary company form a rock-solid foundation and do not drift with the trends and fashions of the day; in some cases, the core values have remained intact for well over one hundred years. And the basic purpose of a visionary company - its reason for being - can serve as a guiding beacon for centuries, like an enduring star on the horizon. Yet, while keeping the core ideologies tightly fixed, visionary companies display a powerful drive for progress that enables them to change and adapt without compromising their cherished core ideals.
Myth 6: Blue-chip companies play it safe.
Reality: Visionary companies may appear straitlaced and conservative to outsiders, but they're not afraid to make bold commitments to "Big Hairy Audacious Goals" (BHAGs). Like climbing a big mountain or going to the moon, a BHAG may be daunting and perhaps risky, but the adventure, excitement, and challenge of it grabs people in the gut, gets their juices flowing, and creates immense forward momentum. Visionary companies have judiciously used BHAGs to stimulate progress and blast past the comparison companies at crucial times in history.
Myth 7: Visionary companies are great places to work, for everyone.
Reality: Only those that "fit" extremeley well with the core ideology and demanding standards of a visionary company will find it a great place to work. If you go to work at a visionary company, you will either fit and flourish - probably couldn't be happier - or you will likely be expunged like a virus. It's binary. There's no middle ground. It's almost cult-like. Visionary companies are so clear about what they stand for and what they're trying to achieve that they simply don't have room for those unwilling or unable to fit their exacting standards.
Myth 8: Highly successful companies make their best moves by brilliant and complex strategic planning.
Reality: Visionary companies make some of their best moves by experimentation, trial and error, opportunism, and - quite literally - accident. What looks in retrospect like brilliant foresight and preplanning was often the result of "Let's just try a lot of stuff and keep what works." In this sense, visionary companies mimic the biological evolution of species. We found the concepts in Charles Darwin's Origin of Species to be more helpful for replicating the success of certain visionary companies than any textbook on corporate strategic planning.
Myth 9: Companies should hire outside CEOs to stimulate fundamental change.
Reality: In seventeen hundred years of combined life spans across the visionary companies, we found only four individual incidents of going outside for a CEO - and those in only two companies. Home-grown management rules at the visionary companies to a far greater degree than at the comparison companies (by a factor of six). Time and again, they have dashed to bits the conventional wisdom that significant change and fresh ideas cannot come from insiders.
Myth 10: The most successful companies focus primarily on beating the competition.
Reality: Visionary companies focus primarily on beating themselves. Success and beating the competitors comes to the visionary companies not so much as the end goal, but as a residual result of relentlessly asking the question "How can we improve ourselves to do better tomorrow than we did today?" And they have asked this question day in and day out - as a disciplined way of life - in some cases for over 150 years. No matter how much they achieve - no matter how far in front of their competition they pull - they never think they've done "good enough."
Myth 11: You can't have your cake and eat it too.
Reality: Visionary companies do not brutalize themselves with the "Tyranny of the OR" - the purely rational view that says you can have either A OR B, but not both. They reject having to make a choice between stability OR progress; cult-like cultures OR individual autonomy; home-grown managers OR fundamental change; conservative practices OR BHAGs; making money OR living according to values and purpose. Instead, they embrace the "Genius of the AND" - the paradoxical view that allows them to pursue both A AND B at the same time.
Myth 12: Companies become visionary primarily through "vision statements."
Reality: The visionary companies attained their stature not so much because they made visionary pronouncements (although they often did make such pronouncements). Nor did they rise to greatness because they wrote one of the vision, values, purpose, mission, or aspiration statements that have become popular in management today (although they wrote such statements more frequently than the comparison companies and decades before it became fashionable). Creating a statement can be a helpful step in building a visionary company, but it is only one of thousands of steps in a never-ending process of expressing the fundamental characteristics we identified across the visionary companies.
One of the most important steps you can take in building a visionary company is not an action, but a shift in perspective. The success of visionary companies - at least in part - comes from underlying processes and fundamental dynamic embedded in the organization and not primarily the result of a single great idea or some great, all-knowing, godlike visionary who made great decisions, had great charisma, and led with great authority. Think more in terms of being an organizational visionary and building the characteristics of a visionary company.
Profitability is a necessary condition for existence and a means to more important ends, but it is not the end in itself for many of the visionary companies. Profit is like oxygen, food, water, and blood for the body; they are not the point of life, but without them, there is no life.
One way to keep core ideology at the top of people's minds: write a series of essays (emails, memos, blog posts) to employees about "who and why we are." In thirty one essays, a Motorola executive discussed the importance of creativity, renewal, total customer satisfaction, quality, ethics, innovation, and similar topics; not once did he write about maximizing profits, nor did he imply this was the underlying purpose - the "why" of it all.
A key step in building a visionary company is to articulate a core ideology (core values plus purpose). Core values are the organization's essential and enduring tenets - a small set of general guiding principles; not to be confused with specific cultural or operational practices; not to be compromised for financial gain or short-term expediency. Purpose is the organization's fundamental reasons for existence beyond just making money - a perpetual guiding star on the horizon; not to be confused with specific goals or business strategies.
The single most important point to take away from this book is the critical importance of creating tangible mechanisms aligned to preserve the core and stimulate progress. This is the essence of clock building.
5 specific methods to preserve the core and stimulate progress:
BHAGs: Commitment to challenging, audacious - and often risky - goals and projects toward which a visionary company channels its efforts (stimulates progress)
Cult-like Cultures: Great places to work only for those who buy into the core ideology; those that don't fit with the ideology are ejected like a virus (preserves the core)
Try a Lot of Stuff and Keep What Works: High levels of action and experimentation - often unplanned and undirected - that produce new and unexpected paths of progress and enables visionary companies to mimic the biological evolution of species (stimulates progress)
Home-grown Management: Promotion from within, bringing to senior levels only those who've spent significant time steeped in the core ideology of the company (preserves the core)
Good Enough Never Is: A continual process of relentless self-improvement with the aim of doing better and better, forever into the future (stimulates progress)
-A BHAG should be so clear and compelling that it requires little or no explanation. Remember, a BHAG is a goal - like climbing a mountain or going to the moon - not a "statement." If it doesn't get people's juices going, then it's just not a BHAG.
-A BHAG should fall well outside the comfort zone. People in the organization should have reason to believe they can pull it off, yet it should require heroic effort and perhaps even a little luck - as with the IBM 360 and Boeing 707.
-A BHAG should be so bold and exciting in its own right that it would continue to stimulate progress even if the organization's leaders disappeared before it had been completed - as happened at Citibank and Wal-Mart.
-A BHAG has the inherent danger that, once achieved, an organization can stall and drift into the "we've arrived" syndrome, as happened at Ford in the 1920s. A company should be prepared to prevent this by having follow-on BHAGs. It should also complement BHAGs with other methods of stimulating progress.
-Finally, and most important of all, a BHAG should be consistent with a company's core ideology.
Cult-like cultures reflect the process of building an organization that fervently preserves its core ideology in specific, concrete ways. The visionary companies translate their ideologies into tangible mechanisms aligned to send a consistent set of reinforcing signals. They indoctrinate people, impose tightness of fit, and create a sense of belonging to something speacial through such practical, concrete items as:
-Orientation and ongoing training programs that have ideological as well as practical content, teaching such things as values, norms, history, and tradition
-Internal "universities" and training centers
-On-the-job socialization by peers and immediate supervisors
-Rigorous up-through-the-ranks policies - hiring young, promoting from within, and shaping the employee's mindset from a young age
-Exposure to a pervasive mythology of "heroic deeds" and corporate exemplars (for example, customer heroics letters, marble statues)
-Unique language and terminology (such as "cast members" at Disney, "Motorolans") that reinforce a frame of reference and the sense of belonging to a special, elite group
-Corporate songs, cheers, affirmations, or pledges that reinforce psychological commitment
-Tight screening processes, either during hiring or within the first few years
-Incentive and advancement criteria explicitly linked to fit with the corporate ideology
-Awards, contests, and public recognition that reward those who display great effort consistent with the ideology; tangible and visible penalties for those who break ideological boundaries
-Tolerance for honest mistakes that do not breach the company's ideology ("non-sins"); severe penalties or termination for breaching the ideology ("sins")
-"Buy-in" mechanisms (financial, time investment)
-Celebrations that reinforce successes, belonging, and specialness
-Plant and office layout that reinforces norms and ideals
-Constant verbal and written emphasis on corporate values, heritage, and the sense of being part of something special
1) "Give it a try and quick!" For 3M, unlike Norton, the modus operandi became: When in doubt, vary, change, solve the problem, seize the opportunity, experiment, try something new (consistent, of course, with the core ideology) - even if you can't predict precisely how things will turn out. Do something. If one thing fails, try another. Fix. Try. Do. Adjust. Move. Act. No matter what, don't sit still. Vigorous action - especially in response to unexpected opportunities or specific customer problems - creates variation. Had McKnight not asked why Okie sent his cryptic letter requesting grit samples, or had Dick Drew not impulsively promised a solution for two-tone paint jobs, or had Spence Silver not done the experiment that textbooks said could not work, or had Art Fry not tried to solve his church choirbook problem, then 3M wouldn't be a visionary company.
2) "Accept that mistakes will be made." Since you can't tell ahead of time which variations will prove to be favorable, you have to accept mistakes and failures as an integral part of the evolutionary process. Had 3M nailed Okie and Drew to the wall (or fired them) for the failed car wax business, then 3M probably wouldn't have invented Scotch tape. Remember Darwin's key phrase: "Multiply, vary, let the strongest live, and the weakest die." In order to have healthy evolution, you have to try enough experiments (multiply) of different types (vary), keep the ones that work (let the strongest live), and discard the ones that don't (let the weakest die). In other words, you cannot have a vibrant self-mutilating system - you cannont have a 3M - without lots of failed experiments. As former 3M CEO Lewis Lehr put it: "The secret, if there is one, is to dump the flops as soon as they are recognized....But even the flops are valuable in certain ways....You can learn from success, but you have to work at it; it's a lot easier to learn from a failure." Keep in mind J&J's paradoxical perspective that failures and mistakes have been an essential price to pay in creating a healthy branching tree that has not once posted a loss in 107 years. At the same time, keep in mind a lesson from the chapter on cult-like cultures: A visionary company tolerates mistakes, but not "sins," that is, breaches of the core ideology.
3) "Take small steps." Of course, it's easier to tolerate failed experiments when they are just that - experiments, not massive corporate failures. If you want to create a major strategic shift in a company, you might try becoming an "incrimental revolutionary" and harnessing the power of small, visible successes to influence overall corporate strategy. Indeed, if you really want to do something revolutionary, it might be best to ask simply for permission to "do an experiment." Recall Americal Express's incremental steps in financial services that eventually became the primary strategic pillar of the company, and how William Dalliba used small experiments to incrementally revolutionize the company into travel services. Keep in mind the image of "twigs and branches." Or consider the image of "seeds and fruit" used by Sony to convey the concept of small, idiosyncratic problems as the starting point of great big opportunities.
4) "Give people the room they need." 3M provided greater operational autonomy and maintained a more decentralized structure than Norton - a key step that enabled unplanned variation. When you give people a lot of room to act, you can't predict precisely what they'll do - and this is good. 3M had no idea what Silver, Fry, and Nicholsen would do with their 15% "discretionary time." In fact, the visionary companies decentralized more and provided greater operational autonomy than the comparison companies in 12 of 18 cases. Allow people to be persistent. Although the Post-it clan had trouble convincing other 3Mers that their weird sticky little notes had merit, no one ever told them to stop working on it.
5) Mechanisms - build that ticking clock! The beauty of the 3M story is that McKnight, Carlton, and others translated the previous four points into tangible mechanisms working in alignment to stimulate evolutionary progress.
It is extremely difficult to become and remain a highly visionary company by hiring top management from outside the organization.
-What mechanisms of discontent can you create that would obliterate complacency and bring about change and improvement from within, yet are consistent with your core ideology? How can you give these mechanisms sharp teeth?
-What are you doing to invest in the future while doing well today? Does your company adopt innovative new methods and technologies before the rest of the industry?
-How do you respond to downturns? Does your company continue to build for the long-term even during difficult times?
-Do people in your company understand that comfort is not the objective - that life in a visionary company is not supposed to be easy? Does your company reject doing well as an end goal, replacing it with the never-ending discipline of working to do better tomorrow than it did today?
18 visionary companies in this study:
3M
American Express
Boeing
Citicorp
Ford
General Electric
Hewlett-Packard
IBM
Johnson & Johnson
Marriott
Merck
Motorola
Nordstrom
Philip Morris
Procter & Gamble
Sony
Wal-Mart
Walt Disney
12 Myths Shattered
Myth 1: It takes a great idea to start a great company.
Reality: Starting a company with a "great idea" might be a bad idea. Few of the visionary companies began life with a great idea. In fact, some began life without any specific idea and a few even began with outright failures. Furthermore, regardless of the founding concept, the visionary companies were significantly less likely to have early entrepreneurial success than the comparison companies in our study. Like the parable of the tortoise and the hare, visionary companies often get off to a slow start, but win the long race.
Myth 2: Visionary companies require great and charismatic visionary leaders.
Reality: A charismatic visionary leader is absolutely not required for a visionary company and, in fact, can be detrimental to a company's long-term prospects. Some of the most significant CEOs in the history of visionary companies did not fit the model of the high-profile, charismatic leader - indeed, some explicitly shied away from that model. Like the founders of the US at the Constitutional Convention, they concentrated more on architecting an enduring institution than on being a great individual leader. They sought to be clock builders, not time tellers. And they have been more this way more than CEOs at the comparison companies.
Myth 3: The most successful companies exist first and foremost to maximize profits.
Reality: Contrary to business school doctrine, "maximizing shareholder wealth" or "profit maximization" has not been the driving force or primary objective through the history of the visionary companies. Visionary companies pursue a cluster of objectives, of which making money is only one - and not necessarily the primary one. Yes, they seek profits, but they're equally guided by a core ideology - core values and sense of purpose beyond just making money. Yet, paradoxically, the visionary companies make more money than the more purely profit-driven comparison companies.
Myth 4: Visionary companies share a common subset of "correct" core values.
Reality: There is no "right" set of core values for being a visionary company. Indeed, two companies can have radically different ideologies, yet both be visionary. Core values in a visionary company don't even have to be "enlightened" or "humanistic," although they often are. The crucial variable is not the content of a company's ideology, but how deeply it believes its ideology and how consistently it lives, breathes, and expresses it in all that it does. Visionary companies do not ask, "What should we value?" They ask, "What do we actually value deep down to our toes?"
Myth 5: The only constant is change.
Reality: A visionary company almost religiously preserves its core ideology - changing it seldom, if ever. Core values in a visionary company form a rock-solid foundation and do not drift with the trends and fashions of the day; in some cases, the core values have remained intact for well over one hundred years. And the basic purpose of a visionary company - its reason for being - can serve as a guiding beacon for centuries, like an enduring star on the horizon. Yet, while keeping the core ideologies tightly fixed, visionary companies display a powerful drive for progress that enables them to change and adapt without compromising their cherished core ideals.
Myth 6: Blue-chip companies play it safe.
Reality: Visionary companies may appear straitlaced and conservative to outsiders, but they're not afraid to make bold commitments to "Big Hairy Audacious Goals" (BHAGs). Like climbing a big mountain or going to the moon, a BHAG may be daunting and perhaps risky, but the adventure, excitement, and challenge of it grabs people in the gut, gets their juices flowing, and creates immense forward momentum. Visionary companies have judiciously used BHAGs to stimulate progress and blast past the comparison companies at crucial times in history.
Myth 7: Visionary companies are great places to work, for everyone.
Reality: Only those that "fit" extremeley well with the core ideology and demanding standards of a visionary company will find it a great place to work. If you go to work at a visionary company, you will either fit and flourish - probably couldn't be happier - or you will likely be expunged like a virus. It's binary. There's no middle ground. It's almost cult-like. Visionary companies are so clear about what they stand for and what they're trying to achieve that they simply don't have room for those unwilling or unable to fit their exacting standards.
Myth 8: Highly successful companies make their best moves by brilliant and complex strategic planning.
Reality: Visionary companies make some of their best moves by experimentation, trial and error, opportunism, and - quite literally - accident. What looks in retrospect like brilliant foresight and preplanning was often the result of "Let's just try a lot of stuff and keep what works." In this sense, visionary companies mimic the biological evolution of species. We found the concepts in Charles Darwin's Origin of Species to be more helpful for replicating the success of certain visionary companies than any textbook on corporate strategic planning.
Myth 9: Companies should hire outside CEOs to stimulate fundamental change.
Reality: In seventeen hundred years of combined life spans across the visionary companies, we found only four individual incidents of going outside for a CEO - and those in only two companies. Home-grown management rules at the visionary companies to a far greater degree than at the comparison companies (by a factor of six). Time and again, they have dashed to bits the conventional wisdom that significant change and fresh ideas cannot come from insiders.
Myth 10: The most successful companies focus primarily on beating the competition.
Reality: Visionary companies focus primarily on beating themselves. Success and beating the competitors comes to the visionary companies not so much as the end goal, but as a residual result of relentlessly asking the question "How can we improve ourselves to do better tomorrow than we did today?" And they have asked this question day in and day out - as a disciplined way of life - in some cases for over 150 years. No matter how much they achieve - no matter how far in front of their competition they pull - they never think they've done "good enough."
Myth 11: You can't have your cake and eat it too.
Reality: Visionary companies do not brutalize themselves with the "Tyranny of the OR" - the purely rational view that says you can have either A OR B, but not both. They reject having to make a choice between stability OR progress; cult-like cultures OR individual autonomy; home-grown managers OR fundamental change; conservative practices OR BHAGs; making money OR living according to values and purpose. Instead, they embrace the "Genius of the AND" - the paradoxical view that allows them to pursue both A AND B at the same time.
Myth 12: Companies become visionary primarily through "vision statements."
Reality: The visionary companies attained their stature not so much because they made visionary pronouncements (although they often did make such pronouncements). Nor did they rise to greatness because they wrote one of the vision, values, purpose, mission, or aspiration statements that have become popular in management today (although they wrote such statements more frequently than the comparison companies and decades before it became fashionable). Creating a statement can be a helpful step in building a visionary company, but it is only one of thousands of steps in a never-ending process of expressing the fundamental characteristics we identified across the visionary companies.
One of the most important steps you can take in building a visionary company is not an action, but a shift in perspective. The success of visionary companies - at least in part - comes from underlying processes and fundamental dynamic embedded in the organization and not primarily the result of a single great idea or some great, all-knowing, godlike visionary who made great decisions, had great charisma, and led with great authority. Think more in terms of being an organizational visionary and building the characteristics of a visionary company.
Profitability is a necessary condition for existence and a means to more important ends, but it is not the end in itself for many of the visionary companies. Profit is like oxygen, food, water, and blood for the body; they are not the point of life, but without them, there is no life.
One way to keep core ideology at the top of people's minds: write a series of essays (emails, memos, blog posts) to employees about "who and why we are." In thirty one essays, a Motorola executive discussed the importance of creativity, renewal, total customer satisfaction, quality, ethics, innovation, and similar topics; not once did he write about maximizing profits, nor did he imply this was the underlying purpose - the "why" of it all.
A key step in building a visionary company is to articulate a core ideology (core values plus purpose). Core values are the organization's essential and enduring tenets - a small set of general guiding principles; not to be confused with specific cultural or operational practices; not to be compromised for financial gain or short-term expediency. Purpose is the organization's fundamental reasons for existence beyond just making money - a perpetual guiding star on the horizon; not to be confused with specific goals or business strategies.
The single most important point to take away from this book is the critical importance of creating tangible mechanisms aligned to preserve the core and stimulate progress. This is the essence of clock building.
5 specific methods to preserve the core and stimulate progress:
BHAGs: Commitment to challenging, audacious - and often risky - goals and projects toward which a visionary company channels its efforts (stimulates progress)
Cult-like Cultures: Great places to work only for those who buy into the core ideology; those that don't fit with the ideology are ejected like a virus (preserves the core)
Try a Lot of Stuff and Keep What Works: High levels of action and experimentation - often unplanned and undirected - that produce new and unexpected paths of progress and enables visionary companies to mimic the biological evolution of species (stimulates progress)
Home-grown Management: Promotion from within, bringing to senior levels only those who've spent significant time steeped in the core ideology of the company (preserves the core)
Good Enough Never Is: A continual process of relentless self-improvement with the aim of doing better and better, forever into the future (stimulates progress)
-A BHAG should be so clear and compelling that it requires little or no explanation. Remember, a BHAG is a goal - like climbing a mountain or going to the moon - not a "statement." If it doesn't get people's juices going, then it's just not a BHAG.
-A BHAG should fall well outside the comfort zone. People in the organization should have reason to believe they can pull it off, yet it should require heroic effort and perhaps even a little luck - as with the IBM 360 and Boeing 707.
-A BHAG should be so bold and exciting in its own right that it would continue to stimulate progress even if the organization's leaders disappeared before it had been completed - as happened at Citibank and Wal-Mart.
-A BHAG has the inherent danger that, once achieved, an organization can stall and drift into the "we've arrived" syndrome, as happened at Ford in the 1920s. A company should be prepared to prevent this by having follow-on BHAGs. It should also complement BHAGs with other methods of stimulating progress.
-Finally, and most important of all, a BHAG should be consistent with a company's core ideology.
Cult-like cultures reflect the process of building an organization that fervently preserves its core ideology in specific, concrete ways. The visionary companies translate their ideologies into tangible mechanisms aligned to send a consistent set of reinforcing signals. They indoctrinate people, impose tightness of fit, and create a sense of belonging to something speacial through such practical, concrete items as:
-Orientation and ongoing training programs that have ideological as well as practical content, teaching such things as values, norms, history, and tradition
-Internal "universities" and training centers
-On-the-job socialization by peers and immediate supervisors
-Rigorous up-through-the-ranks policies - hiring young, promoting from within, and shaping the employee's mindset from a young age
-Exposure to a pervasive mythology of "heroic deeds" and corporate exemplars (for example, customer heroics letters, marble statues)
-Unique language and terminology (such as "cast members" at Disney, "Motorolans") that reinforce a frame of reference and the sense of belonging to a special, elite group
-Corporate songs, cheers, affirmations, or pledges that reinforce psychological commitment
-Tight screening processes, either during hiring or within the first few years
-Incentive and advancement criteria explicitly linked to fit with the corporate ideology
-Awards, contests, and public recognition that reward those who display great effort consistent with the ideology; tangible and visible penalties for those who break ideological boundaries
-Tolerance for honest mistakes that do not breach the company's ideology ("non-sins"); severe penalties or termination for breaching the ideology ("sins")
-"Buy-in" mechanisms (financial, time investment)
-Celebrations that reinforce successes, belonging, and specialness
-Plant and office layout that reinforces norms and ideals
-Constant verbal and written emphasis on corporate values, heritage, and the sense of being part of something special
1) "Give it a try and quick!" For 3M, unlike Norton, the modus operandi became: When in doubt, vary, change, solve the problem, seize the opportunity, experiment, try something new (consistent, of course, with the core ideology) - even if you can't predict precisely how things will turn out. Do something. If one thing fails, try another. Fix. Try. Do. Adjust. Move. Act. No matter what, don't sit still. Vigorous action - especially in response to unexpected opportunities or specific customer problems - creates variation. Had McKnight not asked why Okie sent his cryptic letter requesting grit samples, or had Dick Drew not impulsively promised a solution for two-tone paint jobs, or had Spence Silver not done the experiment that textbooks said could not work, or had Art Fry not tried to solve his church choirbook problem, then 3M wouldn't be a visionary company.
2) "Accept that mistakes will be made." Since you can't tell ahead of time which variations will prove to be favorable, you have to accept mistakes and failures as an integral part of the evolutionary process. Had 3M nailed Okie and Drew to the wall (or fired them) for the failed car wax business, then 3M probably wouldn't have invented Scotch tape. Remember Darwin's key phrase: "Multiply, vary, let the strongest live, and the weakest die." In order to have healthy evolution, you have to try enough experiments (multiply) of different types (vary), keep the ones that work (let the strongest live), and discard the ones that don't (let the weakest die). In other words, you cannot have a vibrant self-mutilating system - you cannont have a 3M - without lots of failed experiments. As former 3M CEO Lewis Lehr put it: "The secret, if there is one, is to dump the flops as soon as they are recognized....But even the flops are valuable in certain ways....You can learn from success, but you have to work at it; it's a lot easier to learn from a failure." Keep in mind J&J's paradoxical perspective that failures and mistakes have been an essential price to pay in creating a healthy branching tree that has not once posted a loss in 107 years. At the same time, keep in mind a lesson from the chapter on cult-like cultures: A visionary company tolerates mistakes, but not "sins," that is, breaches of the core ideology.
3) "Take small steps." Of course, it's easier to tolerate failed experiments when they are just that - experiments, not massive corporate failures. If you want to create a major strategic shift in a company, you might try becoming an "incrimental revolutionary" and harnessing the power of small, visible successes to influence overall corporate strategy. Indeed, if you really want to do something revolutionary, it might be best to ask simply for permission to "do an experiment." Recall Americal Express's incremental steps in financial services that eventually became the primary strategic pillar of the company, and how William Dalliba used small experiments to incrementally revolutionize the company into travel services. Keep in mind the image of "twigs and branches." Or consider the image of "seeds and fruit" used by Sony to convey the concept of small, idiosyncratic problems as the starting point of great big opportunities.
4) "Give people the room they need." 3M provided greater operational autonomy and maintained a more decentralized structure than Norton - a key step that enabled unplanned variation. When you give people a lot of room to act, you can't predict precisely what they'll do - and this is good. 3M had no idea what Silver, Fry, and Nicholsen would do with their 15% "discretionary time." In fact, the visionary companies decentralized more and provided greater operational autonomy than the comparison companies in 12 of 18 cases. Allow people to be persistent. Although the Post-it clan had trouble convincing other 3Mers that their weird sticky little notes had merit, no one ever told them to stop working on it.
5) Mechanisms - build that ticking clock! The beauty of the 3M story is that McKnight, Carlton, and others translated the previous four points into tangible mechanisms working in alignment to stimulate evolutionary progress.
It is extremely difficult to become and remain a highly visionary company by hiring top management from outside the organization.
-What mechanisms of discontent can you create that would obliterate complacency and bring about change and improvement from within, yet are consistent with your core ideology? How can you give these mechanisms sharp teeth?
-What are you doing to invest in the future while doing well today? Does your company adopt innovative new methods and technologies before the rest of the industry?
-How do you respond to downturns? Does your company continue to build for the long-term even during difficult times?
-Do people in your company understand that comfort is not the objective - that life in a visionary company is not supposed to be easy? Does your company reject doing well as an end goal, replacing it with the never-ending discipline of working to do better tomorrow than it did today?
October 17, 2017
- استراتيجيات بعيدة المدى تكون أهم من الأشخاص ولا تتغير بتغيرهم
- نظم جادة تتحول لعقيدة تعمل المنظومة كلها وفقا لها
- أفكار جريئة لا خجولة ولا متهورة
هذا المزيج لابد من توفره لتتحول الشركات إلى عملاق يسيطر ويستمر لأجيال
هذا يجعلنا نعرف البون الشاسع بين هذه الشركات وشركاتنا العربية التي تكون في الغالب مرتبطة بمن يجلس على الكرسي وتتغير بتغير ألوان ياقته
- نظم جادة تتحول لعقيدة تعمل المنظومة كلها وفقا لها
- أفكار جريئة لا خجولة ولا متهورة
هذا المزيج لابد من توفره لتتحول الشركات إلى عملاق يسيطر ويستمر لأجيال
هذا يجعلنا نعرف البون الشاسع بين هذه الشركات وشركاتنا العربية التي تكون في الغالب مرتبطة بمن يجلس على الكرسي وتتغير بتغير ألوان ياقته
January 7, 2008
This is one of the few business books I read cover to cover. I found its idea of what makes companies great to be an inspiring one. It led me to formulate my own "Big Hairy Audacious Goal," which I've tried to use to guide my company ever since: Changing the world by spreading the knowledge of innovators.
May 14, 2010
jim collins cherry picked some companies that he thinks successfull and compare them to 'failed' rival company in the same industry to find out what characteristics that successful company has that the rival company doesn't
Sounds good, but the problem is, he didn't compare the opposite. What those characteristics of successful company which other failed company also has but they still failed.
For example, Big Hairy Audicious goal. I'm pretty sure that a lot of company around the world also has but they still failed.
Sounds good, but the problem is, he didn't compare the opposite. What those characteristics of successful company which other failed company also has but they still failed.
For example, Big Hairy Audicious goal. I'm pretty sure that a lot of company around the world also has but they still failed.
Read
February 9, 2019Used to know the author and read this book years ago. But his methodology and assumptions are questionable.
Critique from Daniel Kahneman, author of "Thinking, Fast and Slow"
https://delanceyplace.com/view-archiv...
It's easy to connect the dots backwards, as Steve Jobs once put it. Hindsight does not equal foresight.
Luck and timing matter far more than many want to admit.
For example, there were several personal computers that were superior to the IBM/MS version, but they were too early, not a market for them yet, so they ended up in the historical dustbin.
Critique from Daniel Kahneman, author of "Thinking, Fast and Slow"
https://delanceyplace.com/view-archiv...
It's easy to connect the dots backwards, as Steve Jobs once put it. Hindsight does not equal foresight.
Luck and timing matter far more than many want to admit.
For example, there were several personal computers that were superior to the IBM/MS version, but they were too early, not a market for them yet, so they ended up in the historical dustbin.
September 30, 2019
3.5 rounded up because it made me smile, had some catchy phrases, and was super short.
Preserve the core! Stimulate progress!
Preserve the core! Stimulate progress!
April 5, 2016
The single most important point to take away from this book is the critical importance of creating tangible mechanisms aligned to preserve the core and stimulate progress. This is the essence of clock building.
5 specific methods to do preserve the core and stimulate progress:
*BHAGs: Commitment to challenging, audacious - and often risky - goals and projects toward which a visionary company channels its efforts (stimulates progress)
*Cult-like Cultures: Great places to work only for those who buy into the core ideology; those that don't fit with the ideology are ejected like a virus (preserves the core)
*Try a Lot of Stuff and Keep What Works: High levels of action and experimentation - often unplanned and undirected - that produce new and unexpected paths of progress and enables visionary companies to mimic the biological evolution of species (stimulates progress)
*Home-grown Management: Promotion from within, bringing to senior levels only those who've spent significant time steeped in the core ideology of the company (preserves the core)
*Good Enough Never Is: A continual process of relentless self-improvement with the aim of doing better and better, forever into the future (stimulates progress)
“Having a great idea or being a charismatic visionary leader is “time telling”; building a company that can prosper far beyond the presence of any single leader and through multiple product life cycles is “clock building.”
“The only truly reliable source of stability is a strong inner core and the willingness to change and adapt everything except that core.”
“Visionary companies are so clear about what they stand for and what they’re trying to achieve that they simply don’t have room for those unwilling or unable to fit their exacting standards.”
“Indeed, if there is any one “secret” to an enduring great company, it is the ability to manage continuity and change—a discipline that must be consciously practiced, even by the most visionary of companies.”
“Comfort is not the objective in a visionary company. Indeed, visionary companies install powerful mechanisms to create /dis/comfort--to obliterate complacency--and thereby stimulate change and improvement /before/ the external world demands it.”
“If you are a prospective entrepreneur with the desire to start and build a visionary company but have not yet taken the plunge because you don’t have a “great idea,” we encourage you to lift from your shoulders the burden of the great-idea myth. Indeed, the evidence suggests that it might be better to not obsess on finding a great idea before launching a company. Why? Because the great-idea approach shifts your attention away from seeing the company as your ultimate creation.”
12 Myths Shattered
Myth 1: It takes a great idea to start a great company.
Myth 2: Visionary companies require great and charismatic visionary leaders.
Myth 3: The most successful companies exist first and foremost to maximize profits.
Myth 4: Visionary companies share a common subset of "correct" core values.
Myth 5: The only constant is change.
Myth 6: Blue-chip companies play it safe.
Myth 7: Visionary companies are great places to work, for everyone.
Myth 8: Highly successful companies make their best moves by brilliant and complex strategic planning.
Myth 9: Companies should hire outside CEOs to stimulate fundamental change.
Myth 10: The most successful companies focus primarily on beating the competition
Myth 11: You can't have your cake and eat it too.
Myth 12: Companies become visionary primarily through "vision statements."
5 specific methods to do preserve the core and stimulate progress:
*BHAGs: Commitment to challenging, audacious - and often risky - goals and projects toward which a visionary company channels its efforts (stimulates progress)
*Cult-like Cultures: Great places to work only for those who buy into the core ideology; those that don't fit with the ideology are ejected like a virus (preserves the core)
*Try a Lot of Stuff and Keep What Works: High levels of action and experimentation - often unplanned and undirected - that produce new and unexpected paths of progress and enables visionary companies to mimic the biological evolution of species (stimulates progress)
*Home-grown Management: Promotion from within, bringing to senior levels only those who've spent significant time steeped in the core ideology of the company (preserves the core)
*Good Enough Never Is: A continual process of relentless self-improvement with the aim of doing better and better, forever into the future (stimulates progress)
“Having a great idea or being a charismatic visionary leader is “time telling”; building a company that can prosper far beyond the presence of any single leader and through multiple product life cycles is “clock building.”
“The only truly reliable source of stability is a strong inner core and the willingness to change and adapt everything except that core.”
“Visionary companies are so clear about what they stand for and what they’re trying to achieve that they simply don’t have room for those unwilling or unable to fit their exacting standards.”
“Indeed, if there is any one “secret” to an enduring great company, it is the ability to manage continuity and change—a discipline that must be consciously practiced, even by the most visionary of companies.”
“Comfort is not the objective in a visionary company. Indeed, visionary companies install powerful mechanisms to create /dis/comfort--to obliterate complacency--and thereby stimulate change and improvement /before/ the external world demands it.”
“If you are a prospective entrepreneur with the desire to start and build a visionary company but have not yet taken the plunge because you don’t have a “great idea,” we encourage you to lift from your shoulders the burden of the great-idea myth. Indeed, the evidence suggests that it might be better to not obsess on finding a great idea before launching a company. Why? Because the great-idea approach shifts your attention away from seeing the company as your ultimate creation.”
12 Myths Shattered
Myth 1: It takes a great idea to start a great company.
Myth 2: Visionary companies require great and charismatic visionary leaders.
Myth 3: The most successful companies exist first and foremost to maximize profits.
Myth 4: Visionary companies share a common subset of "correct" core values.
Myth 5: The only constant is change.
Myth 6: Blue-chip companies play it safe.
Myth 7: Visionary companies are great places to work, for everyone.
Myth 8: Highly successful companies make their best moves by brilliant and complex strategic planning.
Myth 9: Companies should hire outside CEOs to stimulate fundamental change.
Myth 10: The most successful companies focus primarily on beating the competition
Myth 11: You can't have your cake and eat it too.
Myth 12: Companies become visionary primarily through "vision statements."
July 8, 2021
This is the BEST book I read in June 2021.
If you are a business owner or a leader within an organization, you MUST read this book.
If you want to build a visionary organization, this is the book for you.
The book will completely change the way you think about the culture, structure, and many other important components of your business.
Flow: 5/5
Actionability: 5/5
Mindset: 5/5
Some of My Highlights:
"There are many ways to measure the success of a book, but for us the quality of our readership stands at the top of the list."
"Myth 7: Visionary companies are great places to work, for everyone. Reality: Only those who 'fit' extremely well with the core ideology and demanding standards of a visionary company will find it a great place to work. It's binary. There's no middle ground. It's almost cult-like."
"Their greatest creation is the company itself and what it stands for."
"They just started moving forward, trying anything that might get them out of the garage and pay the light bills."
"...Sam Walton also started without a great idea. He went into business with nothing other than the desire to work for himself and a little bit of knowledge (and a lot of passion) about retailing."
"J. Willard Marriott had the desire to be in business for himself, but not clear idea of what business to be in."
"The problem is, how do you develop an environment in which individuals can be creative?... I believe that you have to put a good deal of thought into your organizational structure in order to provide this environment."
"...the shift to seeing the company itself as the ultimate creation."
"He created cash awards and public recognition for associates who contribute cost saving and/or service enhancements ideas that could be reproduced at other stores."
"Tips and ideas generated by associates got published in the Wal-Mart internal magazine."
"In the 1930s, he established art classes for all animators, installed a small zoo on location to provide live creatures to help improve their ability to draw animals, invented new animation team processes (such as storyboards), and continually invested in the most advanced animation technologies."
"A visionary company doesn't seek balance between short-term and long-term, for example. It seeks to do very well in the short-term and very well in the long-term."
"F. Scott Fitzgerald pointed out, 'The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function."
"Yes, Sony made crude heating pads and sweetened bean-paste soup to keep itself alive (pragmatism), but it always dreamed and pushed toward making pioneering contributions (idealism)."
"And, during the same era, he boldly introduced the $5 day for workers which, at roughly twice the standard industry rate, shocked and outraged the industrial world."
"People who make the numbers and share our values go onward and upward. People who miss the numbers and share ur values get a second chance. People with no values and no numbers - easy call."
"Visionary companies tend to have only a few core values, usually between three and six."
"The only sacred cow in an organization should be its basic philosophy of doing business."
"We've found that companies get into trouble by confusing core ideology with specific, noncore practices."
If you are a business owner or a leader within an organization, you MUST read this book.
If you want to build a visionary organization, this is the book for you.
The book will completely change the way you think about the culture, structure, and many other important components of your business.
Flow: 5/5
Actionability: 5/5
Mindset: 5/5
Some of My Highlights:
"There are many ways to measure the success of a book, but for us the quality of our readership stands at the top of the list."
"Myth 7: Visionary companies are great places to work, for everyone. Reality: Only those who 'fit' extremely well with the core ideology and demanding standards of a visionary company will find it a great place to work. It's binary. There's no middle ground. It's almost cult-like."
"Their greatest creation is the company itself and what it stands for."
"They just started moving forward, trying anything that might get them out of the garage and pay the light bills."
"...Sam Walton also started without a great idea. He went into business with nothing other than the desire to work for himself and a little bit of knowledge (and a lot of passion) about retailing."
"J. Willard Marriott had the desire to be in business for himself, but not clear idea of what business to be in."
"The problem is, how do you develop an environment in which individuals can be creative?... I believe that you have to put a good deal of thought into your organizational structure in order to provide this environment."
"...the shift to seeing the company itself as the ultimate creation."
"He created cash awards and public recognition for associates who contribute cost saving and/or service enhancements ideas that could be reproduced at other stores."
"Tips and ideas generated by associates got published in the Wal-Mart internal magazine."
"In the 1930s, he established art classes for all animators, installed a small zoo on location to provide live creatures to help improve their ability to draw animals, invented new animation team processes (such as storyboards), and continually invested in the most advanced animation technologies."
"A visionary company doesn't seek balance between short-term and long-term, for example. It seeks to do very well in the short-term and very well in the long-term."
"F. Scott Fitzgerald pointed out, 'The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function."
"Yes, Sony made crude heating pads and sweetened bean-paste soup to keep itself alive (pragmatism), but it always dreamed and pushed toward making pioneering contributions (idealism)."
"And, during the same era, he boldly introduced the $5 day for workers which, at roughly twice the standard industry rate, shocked and outraged the industrial world."
"People who make the numbers and share our values go onward and upward. People who miss the numbers and share ur values get a second chance. People with no values and no numbers - easy call."
"Visionary companies tend to have only a few core values, usually between three and six."
"The only sacred cow in an organization should be its basic philosophy of doing business."
"We've found that companies get into trouble by confusing core ideology with specific, noncore practices."
March 26, 2012
Both James Collins and Jerry Porras have worked for a couple of the visionary companies that they write about and both have taught at Stanford University Graduate School of Business (Porras still does). Collins specializes in management education while Porras specializes in organizational behavior and change. They write and speak extensively in these fields and work as consultants for many successful organizations.
The thesis of this book is that visionary enduring companies are not dependent upon one charismatic CEO; rather they share timeless, fundamental principles and patterns that transcend product ideas or great leaders.
A key principle they uncover from their research is that visionary companies tend to be “clock builders, not time tellers.” Their first concern is building an organizational culture, rather than acquiring the right charismatic leader or the right product at the right time – “the company itself is the ultimate creation” (28). Enduring companies also avoid the tyranny of the “or” and embrace the genius of the “and” (43). It’s not go for the profit or go for the good of the world, but both. Visionary companies aim for the distinct and extreme ying and yang at the same time. Enduring companies preserve the core and stimulate progress at the same time with equal strength. They have Big Hairy Audacious Goals and preserve its core values. They have cult-like tightness around their core ideology and “turn people loose to experiment, change, adapt and – above all – to act” (139). They try a lot of stuff and keep what works. Visionary companies preserve the core by home-grown management and stimulate progress by trying to do better tomorrow than today. They also seek alignment and synergy in all they do.
There are three primary principles that I will take with me from this book. The first is that visionary enduring organizations focus on being architects of the culture of the organization prior to anything else. This seems true to my experience for churches as well. We are called to cultivate contrast communities that serve the world by engaging in concrete practices that enable us to live out our core values and beliefs. The second principle that I will take with me on my journey in ministry is the importance of preserving the core while stimulating progress. Keeping the ying and yang distinct in this area is vital, for the core values endure but the way they are lived out often change. Then finally, I appreciate the mention of how alignment and synergy are key element to visionary organizations. I have found this principle to be vital as well.
I was glad to hear that not all of the visionary companies use BHAG’s extensively (93,94). At this point in my life, BHAG’s feel more exhausting then stimulating. Of course, I would agree with the authors that one of these elements alone, does not a great company make. BHAG’s by themselves can be de-motivating for a community that has not yet developed a culture necessary to enact those goals. Timing of BHAG’s is crucial.
I have found two principles to be vital for us to implement. First is home-grown leadership. I would say that some of the biggest problems that have ensued in our church plant have been when we have taken leaders from the “outside” and too quickly put them into influential roles. We have corrected this by requiring people be with us for a season in order to be immersed in our core before being given the privilege to serve in influential roles. Second, and the most important principle that our community needs to implement from this book is finding more and various ways to immerse people into our core values and practices while continuing to be innovative in how we accomplish our mission.
The thesis of this book is that visionary enduring companies are not dependent upon one charismatic CEO; rather they share timeless, fundamental principles and patterns that transcend product ideas or great leaders.
A key principle they uncover from their research is that visionary companies tend to be “clock builders, not time tellers.” Their first concern is building an organizational culture, rather than acquiring the right charismatic leader or the right product at the right time – “the company itself is the ultimate creation” (28). Enduring companies also avoid the tyranny of the “or” and embrace the genius of the “and” (43). It’s not go for the profit or go for the good of the world, but both. Visionary companies aim for the distinct and extreme ying and yang at the same time. Enduring companies preserve the core and stimulate progress at the same time with equal strength. They have Big Hairy Audacious Goals and preserve its core values. They have cult-like tightness around their core ideology and “turn people loose to experiment, change, adapt and – above all – to act” (139). They try a lot of stuff and keep what works. Visionary companies preserve the core by home-grown management and stimulate progress by trying to do better tomorrow than today. They also seek alignment and synergy in all they do.
There are three primary principles that I will take with me from this book. The first is that visionary enduring organizations focus on being architects of the culture of the organization prior to anything else. This seems true to my experience for churches as well. We are called to cultivate contrast communities that serve the world by engaging in concrete practices that enable us to live out our core values and beliefs. The second principle that I will take with me on my journey in ministry is the importance of preserving the core while stimulating progress. Keeping the ying and yang distinct in this area is vital, for the core values endure but the way they are lived out often change. Then finally, I appreciate the mention of how alignment and synergy are key element to visionary organizations. I have found this principle to be vital as well.
I was glad to hear that not all of the visionary companies use BHAG’s extensively (93,94). At this point in my life, BHAG’s feel more exhausting then stimulating. Of course, I would agree with the authors that one of these elements alone, does not a great company make. BHAG’s by themselves can be de-motivating for a community that has not yet developed a culture necessary to enact those goals. Timing of BHAG’s is crucial.
I have found two principles to be vital for us to implement. First is home-grown leadership. I would say that some of the biggest problems that have ensued in our church plant have been when we have taken leaders from the “outside” and too quickly put them into influential roles. We have corrected this by requiring people be with us for a season in order to be immersed in our core before being given the privilege to serve in influential roles. Second, and the most important principle that our community needs to implement from this book is finding more and various ways to immerse people into our core values and practices while continuing to be innovative in how we accomplish our mission.
December 8, 2018
کتاب رو ۲ نفر استاد دانشگاه نوشتن، و تقریبا مطلقا از تجربه خودشون صحبت نمیکنن. سوالی که داشتن اینه که یه سری شرکتها ویژنری میشن و طی مدت زمان طولانی (چند دهه) همیشه جزو پیشروهای بازارشون هستن، چه خاصیتی باعث میشه یه شرکتی ویژنری بشه؟
برای جواب دادن، یه تعداد خوبی شرکت ویژنری رو انتخاب کردن، و فقط شرکتهایی رو انتخاب کردن که براشون شرکت مشابه داشتن: شرکتی که تقریبا با شرکت اصلی همزمان تاسیس شده، خیلی شبیهش بوده و تا یه جایی هم پا به پای شرکت اصلی جلو اومده، ولی بعدش ازش عقب مونده. مثلا برای بررسی سونی شباهتها و تفاوتهاش رو با کنوود در نظر گرفتن، برای فورد، جنرال موتورز، و... و البته اینکه فقط شرکتهایی رو در نظر گرفتن که قبل از ۱۹۵۰ تاسیس شدن و تا زمان نوشته شدن کتاب (دهه ۹۰ فک کنم) هنوز سر پا موندن و ویژنری هستن، این کار رو کردن که مطمئن بشن قدرت این شرکت به ساختار و تیمشه نه موسسش، نه یه فرد خاص.
نتیجه اینه که یه سری نکته/راهحل/ویژگی پیدا کردن که شرکتهای ویژنری دارنشون، و مقصودشون اینه که برای اینکه یه شرکت ویژنری بسازید باید این کارها رو بکنید. طبیعتا یه سری از این کارا بدیهی هستن برای همه، ولی فک کنم هر کسی که به این موضوع علاقه داشته باشه یه سری از این نکتهها براش تازه باشن. نه از این جنس که اصل هر کدوم از این ویژگیها تازگی داشته باشن، ولی احتمالا تو جزییاتشون نکتههای جدید زیادی برای اکثر افراد داشته باشه، یا حداقل برای من داشت.
و البته یه نکته بد هم داره کتاب: اینکه شرکتهایی رو که قدیم تاسیس شدن رو مقایسه میکنه باعث میشه خیلیهاش رو ما نشناسیم (به خصوص شرکتهایی که برای مقایسه در نظر گرفته) و حجم زیادی نکته از دست بره.
این رو هم بگم که با اینکه ازش خیلی خوشم اومد، ولی به نظرم اصلا به درد استارتاپ نمیخوره، به خصوص ۲-۳ سال اول، و اینکه توی شرکتت برای این نوع مسائل واقعا وقت بذاری و براشون انرژی صرف کنی به نظرم یه شکم سیری خاصی میخواد! و گذشته از شکم سیری، خیلیهاش واقعا دغدغههاییه که بعد از موفقیتهای اولیه برای شرکت به وجود میاد: مثلا یکی از فصلهاش در مورد اینه که شرکتهای ویژنری فقط به سود فکر نمیکنن و دنبال هدفهای بزرگتری هستن و خیلی جاها سود رو برای اون هدف کنار میذارن. حالا پیدا کنید استارتاپی که سودآوره 😁
برای جواب دادن، یه تعداد خوبی شرکت ویژنری رو انتخاب کردن، و فقط شرکتهایی رو انتخاب کردن که براشون شرکت مشابه داشتن: شرکتی که تقریبا با شرکت اصلی همزمان تاسیس شده، خیلی شبیهش بوده و تا یه جایی هم پا به پای شرکت اصلی جلو اومده، ولی بعدش ازش عقب مونده. مثلا برای بررسی سونی شباهتها و تفاوتهاش رو با کنوود در نظر گرفتن، برای فورد، جنرال موتورز، و... و البته اینکه فقط شرکتهایی رو در نظر گرفتن که قبل از ۱۹۵۰ تاسیس شدن و تا زمان نوشته شدن کتاب (دهه ۹۰ فک کنم) هنوز سر پا موندن و ویژنری هستن، این کار رو کردن که مطمئن بشن قدرت این شرکت به ساختار و تیمشه نه موسسش، نه یه فرد خاص.
نتیجه اینه که یه سری نکته/راهحل/ویژگی پیدا کردن که شرکتهای ویژنری دارنشون، و مقصودشون اینه که برای اینکه یه شرکت ویژنری بسازید باید این کارها رو بکنید. طبیعتا یه سری از این کارا بدیهی هستن برای همه، ولی فک کنم هر کسی که به این موضوع علاقه داشته باشه یه سری از این نکتهها براش تازه باشن. نه از این جنس که اصل هر کدوم از این ویژگیها تازگی داشته باشن، ولی احتمالا تو جزییاتشون نکتههای جدید زیادی برای اکثر افراد داشته باشه، یا حداقل برای من داشت.
و البته یه نکته بد هم داره کتاب: اینکه شرکتهایی رو که قدیم تاسیس شدن رو مقایسه میکنه باعث میشه خیلیهاش رو ما نشناسیم (به خصوص شرکتهایی که برای مقایسه در نظر گرفته) و حجم زیادی نکته از دست بره.
این رو هم بگم که با اینکه ازش خیلی خوشم اومد، ولی به نظرم اصلا به درد استارتاپ نمیخوره، به خصوص ۲-۳ سال اول، و اینکه توی شرکتت برای این نوع مسائل واقعا وقت بذاری و براشون انرژی صرف کنی به نظرم یه شکم سیری خاصی میخواد! و گذشته از شکم سیری، خیلیهاش واقعا دغدغههاییه که بعد از موفقیتهای اولیه برای شرکت به وجود میاد: مثلا یکی از فصلهاش در مورد اینه که شرکتهای ویژنری فقط به سود فکر نمیکنن و دنبال هدفهای بزرگتری هستن و خیلی جاها سود رو برای اون هدف کنار میذارن. حالا پیدا کنید استارتاپی که سودآوره 😁
May 7, 2021
I may get a lot of flak for this, but this is such an overrated book, I was in awe. After years of hearing this book referenced in a variety of books on business and entrepreneurship, I finally decided to pick it up after hearing that this book is research-based. This book is the epitome of finding data that supports your hypothesis, but the authors tout it as simply writing about their findings. I’m sure I’m scrutinizing this book a tad more than the average reader, but nobody who takes research seriously would agree that what Porras and Collins wrote was anywhere near the scientific standard. If you’re looking for a self-help or motivational book to improve your work ethic or help you remember your core values, feel free to check this book out. But this book is not what it’s advertised as and aside from being riddled with research flaws, the evidence is all anecdotal.
December 24, 2014
One of the most valuable books I've read on how to build a company that will change the world. The book is loaded with research, hard evidence to support the claims and with great stories. Collins really nailed it with this one, the content debunks a lot of the myths established by business schools, general public and media. I strongly urge you to read this book, even if you aren't planning to start a company. It will teach you many great lessons which will help you to achieve more success in life.
November 22, 2021
لن أنسى أن هذا الكتاب، هو ما أعطاني الشجاعة الكافية، لإنشاء مدونتي التي كانت تلوح في خاطري كل 10 ثواني، ولكني كنت أخاف - كما أخاف دائما من الفشل، ووهم المثالية المفرطة-
علمني هذا الكتاب أن أبدأ ولو بأقل الامكانيات، أن أبدأ ولو كانت أول خطوة سيئة، لا يهم فهي حتمًا خير من لا شيء.
وقعت في غرام مبدأ "و" بدلًا من مبدأ "أو".
ممتنة للكتب التي لها التأثير الأعظم على معظم قراراتي في الحياة، دامت لي سندًا ورفيقًا لا أمل مجالسته.
علمني هذا الكتاب أن أبدأ ولو بأقل الامكانيات، أن أبدأ ولو كانت أول خطوة سيئة، لا يهم فهي حتمًا خير من لا شيء.
وقعت في غرام مبدأ "و" بدلًا من مبدأ "أو".
ممتنة للكتب التي لها التأثير الأعظم على معظم قراراتي في الحياة، دامت لي سندًا ورفيقًا لا أمل مجالسته.
September 3, 2010
Corporate blah blah blah blah.
I struggled to get through it, but it wasn't the most painful business book ever. I just can't stand the earnestness. Business books that read like they just found the map to the holy grail irk me. Cop to having a great deal of luck and admit your outlook may be totally wrong, but it's the best you could schlep together with what you know, and I'll get on board. If you fully buy into your own BS, I'm not going to enjoy your work.
I struggled to get through it, but it wasn't the most painful business book ever. I just can't stand the earnestness. Business books that read like they just found the map to the holy grail irk me. Cop to having a great deal of luck and admit your outlook may be totally wrong, but it's the best you could schlep together with what you know, and I'll get on board. If you fully buy into your own BS, I'm not going to enjoy your work.
April 29, 2008
I'm reading this book for a company book club. My company views this work as guide for building and maintaining the company...making sure that it's 'built to last'. Reading Built to Last is also part of my indoctrination into the company culture, which I am told I am a good 'fit' for. It only follows that our book discussions are filled with comparisons of our company and the 'visionary' companies studied. We spend time relating what we read to what we see on a day-to-day basis at work, which makes this a more interesting experience than if I'd simply read Built to Last on my own. That being said, I don't really care for the writing or rhetorical style of this book, and I think the ideas are a bit outdated (maybe they've already been internalized by the global business community?) but I think it's an interesting glimpse into the commonalities and inner working of some very large, famous and mostly still successful companies. This week, we read about BHAGs and cult-like cultures, the former of which elicited a few YFZ ranch comments (Only in Texas...) but otherwise I think people were a bit reluctant to admit that our company endorses and embraces a cult-like culture. The myriad social groups, on-site cafeterias, free t-shirts, etc. do quite a good job of facilitating a cult-like culture, despite common grumblings I've heard among my co-workers. Anyway, I am glad I am reading this book if for no other reason than I get to witness my co-workers likening my company to a 'visionary' one. More to come...
++++++++++++
So, today is the last day of my corporate book club meeting discussing Built to Last. I was a bit perplexed by one of the last chapters, which basically said "Don't get comfortable." I mean, I get this and all, but is that really the final shining gem that I am to take with me when all is said and done. Meh. Anyway, this has been an interesting enough read, though I think I would recommend that you read a good summary or review of the book as opposed to subjecting yourself to the entire 250+ pages of diluted case studies and less-that-slick rhetoric. This give me an idea....since at least a few of the companies outlined have fallen on hard times, it'd be interesting to make a "Where are they now" short film.
My final words on this book: I'm glad it's over.
++++++++++++
So, today is the last day of my corporate book club meeting discussing Built to Last. I was a bit perplexed by one of the last chapters, which basically said "Don't get comfortable." I mean, I get this and all, but is that really the final shining gem that I am to take with me when all is said and done. Meh. Anyway, this has been an interesting enough read, though I think I would recommend that you read a good summary or review of the book as opposed to subjecting yourself to the entire 250+ pages of diluted case studies and less-that-slick rhetoric. This give me an idea....since at least a few of the companies outlined have fallen on hard times, it'd be interesting to make a "Where are they now" short film.
My final words on this book: I'm glad it's over.
February 6, 2013
i liked that they focused on companies that have made it long term in this book. it demonstrates that great companies aren't solely built on an idea or market timing; but on great systems, having a vision and mission that is higher than money (for real, not just something you put on a plaque somewhere), and creating a tight, consistent culture...so that it becomes apparent very quickly whether or not someone is a fit.
I actually took their advice and spent some time thinking about what my mission would be if I never got paid for what I do. I realized that what i love about my role has nothing to do with the industry or any product (you can only get so passionate about insurance), but that I get to take something very complex and expensive and make it approachable to people. Financial rewards are important, but doing something that has real purpose is what makes those long days worth it.
It was a good exercise. And a book definitely worth reading.
I actually took their advice and spent some time thinking about what my mission would be if I never got paid for what I do. I realized that what i love about my role has nothing to do with the industry or any product (you can only get so passionate about insurance), but that I get to take something very complex and expensive and make it approachable to people. Financial rewards are important, but doing something that has real purpose is what makes those long days worth it.
It was a good exercise. And a book definitely worth reading.
January 14, 2018
I started to read this book after finishing Good To Great by Jim C Collins and it's really an excellent book that led me to reformulate my own concept about company's core values, purpose. The following chapters Clock Builder, Big Hairy Audacious Goal and Try a lot of stuff are extremely important and it did help me to see the bigger picture of how a company should operate. definitely, it's a must-read the book for any manager, CEO, Entrepreneur who is interested to contribute in building any company/organization that shall last over time.
October 29, 2016
Update: I flipped through this a few days ago and realized this book is only slightly better than "Who Moved My Cheese," and other business-related books.
I read this years ago, and today it's the only "business book" that has stayed on my shelves here at home after I finished my 30 years in corporate America. There are some good articles about successful companies vs. failed companies, and if I ever start a company, there are some admirable ones here with which to study.
I read this years ago, and today it's the only "business book" that has stayed on my shelves here at home after I finished my 30 years in corporate America. There are some good articles about successful companies vs. failed companies, and if I ever start a company, there are some admirable ones here with which to study.
September 22, 2019
Hay tres conceptos muy importantes a la hora de levantar una empresa que perdure durante siglos:
1.- Fabricar relojes, no dar la hora.
Hay que construir un sistema que facilite el ingreso de nuevos miembros a la compañía.
Se debe evitar a toda costa que la organización dependa, únicamente, de un líder carismático.
El equipo tiene que estar por encima de cualquier individualidad: la cultura de la empresa siempre por arriba de los egos.
2) Aceptar la genialidad del “Y”, alejarse de la tiranía del “O”.
¿Tu empresa tiene que vender mucho o convertirse en una ‘lovemark’?
Ambas cosas.
¿Tienes que pagarle más a tus empleados o invertir en equipo tecnológico?
Ambas cosas.
Las grandes empresas de siempre supieron destacar en varios aspectos, sin tener que descuidar unos y enaltecer otros.
3) Preservar la esencia mientras estimulas el progreso.
La clave está en buscar constantemente la sincronía: establecer unos valores claros que nazcan de la esencia de los fundadores y luego no parar, año tras año, de reforzar esa alma que hace única a la empresa.
Es importante la coherencia entre lo que se predica y lo que finalmente se hace.
No obstante, más allá de que haya unos valores definidos, las grandes organizaciones deben ser lo suficientemente ‘maleables’ para crear cosas nuevas.
La libertad individual, dentro de la estructura grupal, es fundamental.
Frases poderosas:
“‘What do we stand for and why do we exist?’” This should never change. And then feel free to change everything else. Put another way, visionary companies distinguish their timeless core values and enduring purpose (which should never change) from their operating practices and business strategies (which should be changing constantly in response to a changing world).”
“We move more slowly, and grow only as fast as we can and people who will uphold out standards. And we’re willing to forgo business opportunities that would force us to abandon our principles. We’re still here after one hundred years, doubling in size every six or seven years, when most of our competitors from fifty years ago don’t even exist anymore. Why? Because of the discipline to not compromise our standards for the sake of expediency. In everything we do, we take the long view. Always.”
1.- Fabricar relojes, no dar la hora.
Hay que construir un sistema que facilite el ingreso de nuevos miembros a la compañía.
Se debe evitar a toda costa que la organización dependa, únicamente, de un líder carismático.
El equipo tiene que estar por encima de cualquier individualidad: la cultura de la empresa siempre por arriba de los egos.
2) Aceptar la genialidad del “Y”, alejarse de la tiranía del “O”.
¿Tu empresa tiene que vender mucho o convertirse en una ‘lovemark’?
Ambas cosas.
¿Tienes que pagarle más a tus empleados o invertir en equipo tecnológico?
Ambas cosas.
Las grandes empresas de siempre supieron destacar en varios aspectos, sin tener que descuidar unos y enaltecer otros.
3) Preservar la esencia mientras estimulas el progreso.
La clave está en buscar constantemente la sincronía: establecer unos valores claros que nazcan de la esencia de los fundadores y luego no parar, año tras año, de reforzar esa alma que hace única a la empresa.
Es importante la coherencia entre lo que se predica y lo que finalmente se hace.
No obstante, más allá de que haya unos valores definidos, las grandes organizaciones deben ser lo suficientemente ‘maleables’ para crear cosas nuevas.
La libertad individual, dentro de la estructura grupal, es fundamental.
Frases poderosas:
“‘What do we stand for and why do we exist?’” This should never change. And then feel free to change everything else. Put another way, visionary companies distinguish their timeless core values and enduring purpose (which should never change) from their operating practices and business strategies (which should be changing constantly in response to a changing world).”
“We move more slowly, and grow only as fast as we can and people who will uphold out standards. And we’re willing to forgo business opportunities that would force us to abandon our principles. We’re still here after one hundred years, doubling in size every six or seven years, when most of our competitors from fifty years ago don’t even exist anymore. Why? Because of the discipline to not compromise our standards for the sake of expediency. In everything we do, we take the long view. Always.”
November 23, 2020
A spiritual epiphany was not what I expected when I took 'Built to Last' on a business trip to read on the plane.
I can still remember the moment. I was reading Collins's chapter on the tension between preserving the core while stimulating progress and it struck me..... 'If there's any organization that should be preserving its core values while stimulating progress it's the Church - If there's anyone who should practice this it is Jesus' followers.'
That was the end of the book for that trip.
I still have the ticket stub on which I started working through the burning question Collins raised for me - 'What are my core values as a follower of Christ?'.
I did not complete that effort on that flight. In fact, that moment of epiphany led to a meditative process that literally lasted for years as I worked to distill five core values I hold that are rooted in the words of God and speak deeply to where I feel God has called me as I follow Him.
It was well worth the process.
Many have written of the business impact of this book. I have nothing to add to that discussion. But the influence it has had on my spiritual life has been profound.
I can still remember the moment. I was reading Collins's chapter on the tension between preserving the core while stimulating progress and it struck me..... 'If there's any organization that should be preserving its core values while stimulating progress it's the Church - If there's anyone who should practice this it is Jesus' followers.'
That was the end of the book for that trip.
I still have the ticket stub on which I started working through the burning question Collins raised for me - 'What are my core values as a follower of Christ?'.
I did not complete that effort on that flight. In fact, that moment of epiphany led to a meditative process that literally lasted for years as I worked to distill five core values I hold that are rooted in the words of God and speak deeply to where I feel God has called me as I follow Him.
It was well worth the process.
Many have written of the business impact of this book. I have nothing to add to that discussion. But the influence it has had on my spiritual life has been profound.
March 9, 2020
What I’ve learnt most from “Built to last” is to be a clock-builder not a time-teller.
Very inspiring and detailed book, analysing visionary companies as Disney, 3M, Procter & Gamble and etc. What factors have influenced these companies’ existence and growth for many years? It seems that there are some of them that are similar among all visionary companies.
My top key takeaways from this book would be: BHAG’s, core ideology for a company, “good enough never is”, stimulate progress, constant experimentation and long-term thinking.
Highly recommend for everyone who is interested in business, entrepreneurship and especially for current CEOs or managers as this book can give you many life-changing lessons that you can apply.
Very inspiring and detailed book, analysing visionary companies as Disney, 3M, Procter & Gamble and etc. What factors have influenced these companies’ existence and growth for many years? It seems that there are some of them that are similar among all visionary companies.
My top key takeaways from this book would be: BHAG’s, core ideology for a company, “good enough never is”, stimulate progress, constant experimentation and long-term thinking.
Highly recommend for everyone who is interested in business, entrepreneurship and especially for current CEOs or managers as this book can give you many life-changing lessons that you can apply.
April 23, 2010
A pale logical follow-up to Good to Great, by the same author. To sum it up comparatively, Built to Last is more juice (anecdotes), less pulp (thought).
January 10, 2011
Great book, detailing the successes of visionary companies and what differentiates them from their competitors. Inspiring, makes me want to implement as many of the suggestions as I can in my own company. I want to read "The Halo Effect", a book a different author that details possible errors in the research done by Collins on this book - balanced viewpoints are important.
September 10, 2012
Pretty good but dated, and some of the words of wisdom failed in some of the cases. Enjoyed the discussion of the visionary plan of Freddie Mac to change the mortgage industry to benefit more people starting in 1992. The noted that these changes might out live the secondary mortgage industry... probably happened not the way they planned.
January 26, 2020
Some pretty decent observations and perceptions, but otherwise a bit subjective when it came to companies being used as examples. That being said, that accusation could rightly be leveled at tons of books, so I'm not sure how fair that is. Still, recommended and a fairly solid effort.
July 1, 2021
Clock builder not time teller
Genius of the And
Preserve core/stim prog
Consistent alignment
Ch11 core ideology
Genius of the And
Preserve core/stim prog
Consistent alignment
Ch11 core ideology
February 17, 2019
Xây Dựng Để Trường Tồn - là quyển sách viết về những công ty hàng đầu, có tầm nhìn xa, hoài bão lớn. Cuốn sách dành cho những người không bao giờ hài lòng với kết quả đạt được, luôn đặt yêu cầu rất cao cho bản thân. Ngày hôm nay sẽ hơn ngày hôm qua. Luôn rèn luyện và phát triển doanh nghiệp để không chỉ thành công mà còn phát triển vững bền.
Quyển sách là kết quả nghiên cứu thực tế suốt thời gian dài về sự phát triển và triết lý quản trị của hàng loạt công ty. Sách là một tài liệu quý giá cho các nhà quản trị trong việc thiết kế, tổ chức thực hiện và xây dựng công ty thành công nhanh và vững chắc.
Cuốn sách được trình bày với hàng trăm ví dụ cụ thể, sinh động, sắp xếp trong một khuôn mẫu rõ ràng, nhất quán của các khái niệm thực tế, tạo điều kiện dễ dàng áp dụng cho các nhà quản trị và nhà kinh doanh ở mọi cấp độ khác nhau. Xây dựng để trường tồn thực sự là một bản kế hoạch chi tiết cho việc xây dựng các tổ chức phát triển và thành công trong thế kỷ XXI.
4 khái niệm hướng dẫn cho suy nghĩ về quản trị:
1. Hãy là một kiến trúc sư, một người tạo ra đồng hồ chứ không chỉ là người báo giờ đơn thuần.
2. Luôn thử nguyên tắc sự kỳ diệu của chữ Và
3. Gìn giữ cái cốt lõi/ thúc đẩy sự tiến bộ
4. Tìm kiếm sự liên kết mang tính nhất quán
Quyển sách là kết quả nghiên cứu thực tế suốt thời gian dài về sự phát triển và triết lý quản trị của hàng loạt công ty. Sách là một tài liệu quý giá cho các nhà quản trị trong việc thiết kế, tổ chức thực hiện và xây dựng công ty thành công nhanh và vững chắc.
Cuốn sách được trình bày với hàng trăm ví dụ cụ thể, sinh động, sắp xếp trong một khuôn mẫu rõ ràng, nhất quán của các khái niệm thực tế, tạo điều kiện dễ dàng áp dụng cho các nhà quản trị và nhà kinh doanh ở mọi cấp độ khác nhau. Xây dựng để trường tồn thực sự là một bản kế hoạch chi tiết cho việc xây dựng các tổ chức phát triển và thành công trong thế kỷ XXI.
4 khái niệm hướng dẫn cho suy nghĩ về quản trị:
1. Hãy là một kiến trúc sư, một người tạo ra đồng hồ chứ không chỉ là người báo giờ đơn thuần.
2. Luôn thử nguyên tắc sự kỳ diệu của chữ Và
3. Gìn giữ cái cốt lõi/ thúc đẩy sự tiến bộ
4. Tìm kiếm sự liên kết mang tính nhất quán
August 30, 2022
Uno mas de la lista (los teóricamente recomendados por Jeff Bezos).
Me gustó el concepto, me parece un buen análisis "forense", y me parece que su gran aportación de valo, al menos para mí, es que nos ayuda a desmitificar el emprendimiento, que creo que en muchísimos casos resulta una imagen peligrosa y falaz.
Me gustó el concepto, me parece un buen análisis "forense", y me parece que su gran aportación de valo, al menos para mí, es que nos ayuda a desmitificar el emprendimiento, que creo que en muchísimos casos resulta una imagen peligrosa y falaz.
November 5, 2020
Allt of löng, allt of mikil endurtekning. Svakaleg korpó-dýrkun. Ekki að ég hafi ekki vitað hvað ég var að koma mér út í. Fín fyrir það sem hún ætlaði sér I guess
August 11, 2022
Brilliant read to building a sustainable visionary organization
Built to Last is a book of luminescent importance among books about successful companies/organizations. Based on the thorough research of Jim Collins (of Good to Great fame) and Jerry Porras, this book examines the qualities of visionary companies who had great success and staying power in their fields. They identified 18 such companies and had a comparison group of comparable companies in the same industry. The results are conclusive. Visionary companies thrive on being clock makers who build their organization to improve each year and withstand the test of time. They fervently focus on their core competencies. They consistently stay true to their core values. Yet they will change and innovate. They adopt the “genius of and” realizing they can be equally committed to seemingly contradictory purposes, yet those purposes are actually equally important. For example these companies can be committed to serving people, AND they can seek to dominate their market. They embody the yin and yang concept, complementary forces that co-exist and support one another. Visionary organizations are also committed to serving people and the greater common good, however they define it. They aren’t focused on profit as the most important purpose.
This is another Collins book that is a total game changer, along with Good to Great and How the Mighty Fall. It’s a classic read of brilliant proportions. Any business or organizational leader who seeks to build something that lasts and thrives long after our own tenures passed to someone else, needs to read this book. NOW!
Built to Last is a book of luminescent importance among books about successful companies/organizations. Based on the thorough research of Jim Collins (of Good to Great fame) and Jerry Porras, this book examines the qualities of visionary companies who had great success and staying power in their fields. They identified 18 such companies and had a comparison group of comparable companies in the same industry. The results are conclusive. Visionary companies thrive on being clock makers who build their organization to improve each year and withstand the test of time. They fervently focus on their core competencies. They consistently stay true to their core values. Yet they will change and innovate. They adopt the “genius of and” realizing they can be equally committed to seemingly contradictory purposes, yet those purposes are actually equally important. For example these companies can be committed to serving people, AND they can seek to dominate their market. They embody the yin and yang concept, complementary forces that co-exist and support one another. Visionary organizations are also committed to serving people and the greater common good, however they define it. They aren’t focused on profit as the most important purpose.
This is another Collins book that is a total game changer, along with Good to Great and How the Mighty Fall. It’s a classic read of brilliant proportions. Any business or organizational leader who seeks to build something that lasts and thrives long after our own tenures passed to someone else, needs to read this book. NOW!
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