Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies Reviews

• How to build it to last

  
  By A1STWK33TMM7IJ on 2002-03-15
  Built To Last was an extremely thought provoking and eye opening read. Built To Last studies some of the most successful (called the leading companies) and the following companies (non-leaders in an industry). The research for this book produced surprising results for the authors (and the reader). The authors found the there were at least twelve commonly held businesses beliefs that their research refuted. In essence these dearly held business beliefs were myths.

  Here is a look at each of the twelve myths and a sound byte describing each:

  1. It takes a great idea to start a company Few visionary companies started with a great idea. Many companies started without any specific ideas (HP and Sony) and others were outright failures (3M). In fact a great idea may lead to road of not being able to adapt.

  2. Visionary companies require great and charismatic visionary leaders A charismatic leader in not required and, in fact, can be detrimental to a company's long-term prospects.

  3. The most successful companies exist first and foremost to maximize profits Not true. Profit counts, but is usually not at the top of the list.

  4. Visionary companies share a common subset of "correct" core values They all have core values, but each is unique to a company and it's culture.

  5. The only constant is change The core values can and often do last more then 100 years.

  6. Blue-chip companies play it safe They take significant bet the company risks.

  7. Visionary companies are great places to work, for everyone These companies are only great places to work if you fit the vision and culture.

  8. Highly successful companies make some of their best moves by brilliant and complex strategic planning. They actually try a bunch of stuff and keep what works.

  9. Companies should hire outside CEOs to stimulate fundamental change Most have had their change agents come from within the system.

  10. The most successful companies focus primarily on beating the competition. They focus on beating themselves.

  11. You can't have your cake and eat it too. Decisions don't have to either or, but can be boths.

  12. Companies become visionary primarily through "vision statements". Vision is not a statement it is the way you do business.

  I would recommend this book to anyone engaged in developing and running a business at any level. If you want to design, build and run a lasting enterprise this book has some ideas and insights worth exploring.
  
  

• Unprecedented, Compelling, Well-Researched

  
  By on 1997-07-28
  "Built to Last" is one of those rare non-fiction books you just can't put down. Unequivocally the best "business" book I have ever read, "Built to Last" by James C. Collins and Jerry I. Porras is a compelling, thorough, well-written, unprecedented look at what it takes to "create and achieve long-lasting greatness as a visionary corporation." Unlike many current "trendy" management and "business success" books out on the market, Collins and Porras differentiate "Built to Last" by using their own six-year comprehensive, well-documented research study as the basis for further analysis.

  What separates "Built to Last" is that each visionary company (3M, HP, Procter & Gamble, Wal-Mart...) is contrasted with a comparison company founded in the same time, in the same industry, with similar founding products and markets (Norton, TI, Colgate, Ames...). Perhaps what I found most intriguing were some of the twelve "shattered myths" they go on to counter throughout the book:

  1. It takes a great idea to start a great company
  2. Visionary companies require great and charismatic visionary leaders
  3. Visionary companies share a common subset of "correct" core values
  4. Highly successful companies make their best moves by brilliant and complex strategic planning
  5. The most successful companies focus primarily on beating the competition

  As a current business student with a summer internship in a "visionary company," I was amazed as their careful analysis rang true. This is one book I can highly recommend to any student, professional, or business educator looking for those not-so-subtle traits that characterize a truly visionary company.

  
  
  

• Read this along with Good To Great

  
  By on 2004-03-13
  This book will show you how to take your business from just average to great but even more importantly, make it last. Built to Last is a must read for all business people. Read this right along with Good To Great and Double Digit Growth.

  Take your company to unequaled growth and leave a legacy.
  
  

• Some good stuff, but mostly hack work

  
  By A2RAES2RXYKGIZ on 1999-12-31
  I found the one chapter in the book on Cults and Culture to be compelling, but overall this was an unbelievably boring and repetitive work, with little or no substantive research on the control groups used to compare visionary and non-visionary companies. I think I got their point of clock building, not time telling the first time they used the metaphor. I found myself getting extremely frustrated with the repetitive reference to simple observations through out their study: Preserve the core, stimulate progress, blah, blah, blah...

  A MUCH better book on which type of companies will succeed in the new age of the service based economy is The Profit Zone. It takes many of the same companies mentioned in Built to Last and does much better job of describing why some succeed and some fail. The chapter on GE is especially illuminating. The Profit Zone is a methodology based book; Built to Last is more of an excercise in aphorisms with the exception of one remarkable chapter on organizational cultures (chapter six, Cult-Like Cultures). I guess having one original observation is a BHAG for just about any business book.
  
  

• A Great Book with a Flaw

  
  By A4J6S2FDKREYD on 2005-01-31
  This book reminds me of the hero in the classic Greek tragedy. The hero is always magnificent, but has a tragic flaw. This is a magnificent book with a tragic flaw.
  
  Porras and Collins set out to write a book about visionary companies, and they did just that. They chose the companies they would study based on specific, detailed criteria.
  
  They wanted to study companies that had been premier institutions in their industries and widely admired while they made an imprint on the world around them. They wanted their companies to have multiple generations of chief executives and to have gone through multiple product or service lifecycles. And they wanted the companies to have been around for a long time - founded before 1950.
  
  They compared each of their visionary companies with another company that was not a premier visionary company. Many of the comparison companies were solid performers. They were good companies, but not great companies. That's one of the great things about the book. You can see the distinction between good performance and great performance.
  
  Another thing that makes the book great is the extensive research. The project took six years, and the authors and their research team dug into critical issues and came up with fascinating insights and comparisons.
  
  Read this book and you will learn about the characteristics of great companies that have an impact on the world around them. The discussions will enrich your understanding of what makes a great company. This will be especially valuable to you if you're in the process of building a company that you want to be great.
  
  That's the great part, the hero part. What about the flaws?
  
  The first flaw is that essentially performance for each of these companies is equated with market performance. There are lots of things the authors could have used, such as return on assets, for example. But share price is easy to track over time and is used as a surrogate for greatness. I'm not sure that that's the best criterion.
  
  What you are actually reading about is a selection of excellent, visionary companies that were perceived as good investments by the market. This "perception" issue is not addressed in the book.
  
  The second flaw is more important. While this book tells you marvelous things about companies that are admittedly great and about some of the things that make for greatness in companies, and while it mixes statistical data with telling anecdotes, it falls short in one critical area. The book doesn't tell you anything about how to achieve greatness.
  
  In other words, it describes what greatness might be and it gives you some examples of companies who have achieved it, but the book ultimately left me with the nagging desire that the authors would have given me some "how to." As far as you can tell from reading the book, these companies were always great.
  
  That may not be a problem for you if you're just starting a company. You've got a clean slate to start from. But if you're guiding an already-established company, or a part of it, I think you'll wish for a few examples of companies that became great after performing at some lesser level.
  
  That's the bottom line in my recommendation. If you're looking for a book that describes greatness and where you'll pick up a wealth of ideas and good historical knowledge about great companies, buy this book. If, on the other hand, what you want is a book that describes in some detail how to achieve that greatness, this may not be the book for you.
  
  
  
• A logical fault remains unexplained: Why bother ?
  By A1O5UIB6Q8UNVR on 2000-03-28
  I came across this "built to last" book as a compulsory reading of my MBA class and I think there is a fundamental fault in the "built to last" argument which if not resolved, it is meaningless to talk about how to build such companies: Why bother? Why shouldn't an economy of "come and go" or "build to flip" be more efficient than one of "built to last"? Why shouldn't productivity and innovation be much easily fostered in an economy of "come and go"?

  A lot of the "B t L" companies are there since the rise of the industrial economy in which large groups of people worked together in the form of division of labour to achieve efficiency. Internally, a corporation cultivates a set of collective behaviors pattern that forms the identity of the corporation and allows individual members working together to achieve synergy. Externally, customers identify the brandname of the corporation than with the product most of the time.

  In the modern network economy, it has become much easier for individuals or smaller groups to identify their counter-parts to work with. Outsourcing, supply-chain management, B2B, virtual corporations are new way for groups of people to work together without much corporate identities. To customers, brand marketing is also loosing ground as power shifts from the vendor to the customers.

  Isn't it make more sense to think of great corporations as small groups engage in a Darwinistic competition rather than a large conglomerate in which incompetence and inefficiency are protected by layers of bureaucracy and politics? What if in a world of "C & G", everyone has to focus more on upgrade of transferrable skills rather than climbing up the corporate ladder? Why shouldn't the world economy be better off if there are more "C & G" than "B t L" companies?

  I dont have the answers and I think those would vary according to time, information technology advancement,national environment and industries. However, without answering them, how can anyone be sure that "B t L" is a meaningful pursuit.
  
  

• solid yet pedestrian, like lots of businesses
  By AUM3YMZ0YRJE0 on 2002-06-06
  As I dutifully plow through the currently popular business books - and I read only the ones that I need rather than for pleasure - I occasionally find a good and (fairly) interesting one. This is one of those books I would recommend. Instead of overflowing with ridiculously florid rhetoric about recycled banalities and excitement that is simply not justified, this book is based on solid research and is not afraid to offer un-spectacular advice.

  It is about what the authors call "visionary companies," which stand for something beyond just making money and yet are profitable. They do well, and they do good. There is no doubt that such companies exist, which I admit in spite of my boredom and cynicism regarding most of the businessmen and "business intellectuals" that I deal with as a writer.

  Set up like an academic study, the book is a synthesis of the authors' findings while taking a long historical view of consistently excellent (i.e. "visionary") companies like H-P, Merck, and P&G.

  Not surprisingly, these companies do similar things: 1) they have visions and value that they try to uphold consistently throughout the company and to which they stay true over decades; 2) the set incredibly ambitious (and in retrospect realistic) goals that inspire their employees ("big hairy ambitious goals"); 3) they are cult-like in their beliefs in themselves; 4) they allow for trial and error, which lead to "evolutionary progress"; 5) they hire leadership from within; 6) they cultivate keeping their employees a bit off-balance ("uncomfortable") as a way of getting them to perform at their best; 7) they make sure that all elements work in concert and are internally consistent and self-reinforcing ("alignment").

  That is it for the ideas, which are far more nuanced than the above paragraph. They could be summarized in one chapter, and the rest of the book is repetition and analysis by example. The examples are interesting and informative and the ideas, which have all been said before, are good to review in a systematic way. Very good.

  These are good and useful ideas, if somewhat banal. But then, doing business is rather dull for the most part - there are very few exciting companies out there, but most of them are like horribly dysfunctional families. This is the authors' bid to explain the good few.

  The tone of the book is rather modest, but the authors do get a bit too wordy and chummy in many instances. While I liked the modesty, I got bored with the chumminess.

  Recommended.
  
  

• Good read, if you have not read Good To Great
  By A2ZU5UM8ZI8LQG on 2005-12-11
  For one, it is slightly difficult for me to review this book because:
  
  1. It shares completely all its structure & methodology with Good To Great. This is not exactly bad, but it is no different.
  
  2. It shares a good amount of its content with Good To Great. This is to be expected because it stands to reason that companies who made it "Great" will have commonalities with companies which have been "visionary".
  
  To those of you who are looking for an isolated review of "Built To Last", I apologize. This review will not cover a lot of it. I'd instead say that in my own opinion, "Good To Great" is a far better book. Now this could be because I read that one first, but I'd also like to think that this also because "Good To Great" has:
  1. About all the specific traits as far qualifying differentiators of great companies is concerned. The phraseology could be different, e.g. what is termed as "Clock Building" in BTL is called "Level 5 Leadership" in GTG.
  
  2. And it has more, particularly two traits that come to my mind right away. One is "Face the brutal facts" & the other being the "Hedgehog concept". The authors in many ways might have implied these traits in visionary companies in BTL, but they are not identified as points to focus on - as they are in GTG.
  
  On the whole, my advice is read any one of them for the marginal value of reading the other having read any one first is really little. And in case you intend to read just one, I'd recommend GTG over BTL.
  
  And here is one last thing I think that both books did not emphasize enough:
  So if
  Business success = Traits A(Traits common to all successful companies) + Traits B (Traits about great companies that separate them from just successful companies),
  
  then both books just talk about traits B. May be I should talk to JC about that, :)
  
  S!
  
  
• New insights on growth for people and organizations
  By A185B1S2XBQXUK on 2000-01-03
  If you invested in a general market stock fund, or a comparison company, and a visionary company January 1, 1926 and reinvested dividends, a $1 in the general market fund would have grown to $415; not bad. Your $1 investment in the comparison companies would have grown to $955 (twice the general market). But your investment in the visionary companies would have grown to $6,356, six times greater than comparison companies and fifteen times greater than the general market.

  The "visionary" companies: 3M, American Express, Boeing, Citicorp, Ford, GE, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Johnson & Johnson, Marriott, Merck, Motorola, Nordstrom, Philip Morris, Procter & Gamble, Sony, Wal-Mart, Walt Disney.

  Enduring companies grow because they concentrate on being a great organization, not because of an original idea for a product or service. A lasting, core ideology is the driving force behind a visionary company; not culture, strategy, tactics, operations or policies. Core values are simple, clear, straightforward beliefs of unchanging, fundamental values such as The Golden Rule, but core values differ widely. They are the basic reason for existence beyond just making money. Visionary companies concentrate on building an organization rather than implementation of a great idea, charis-matic leadership, or wealth accumulation. The authors call it "clock-building" rather than "time-telling."

  Growth favors the persistent but persist in what? They never give up on the company, but drop losing ideas, adopt winning ideas and along the way, try many ideas to find winners. But it's the company, not the idea. Most revealing was the extraordinary fact that visionary companies can live with contradictory ideas and forces at the same time. They don't accept an A or B concept, for example, that there must be either stability or change. They do both at the same time, all the time.

  This is a rare, difficult trait. The book aptly quotes F. Scott Fitzgerald: "...first rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas... at the same time.. . and still function."

  The profit myth. Visionary companies are more idealogically-drlven and less profit-driven than comparison companies. Of course they pursue profit, but they do both. More importantly, their values don't shift with the times, or changing markets.

  As the authors reel off the rather obscure names of heads of visionary companies (and their personality traits), clearly they aren't charismatic leaders, but perhaps better described as "architects." People have always harbored a deep need to be assured that someone or something must have it all figured out; God must have made it that way. Not so with visionary companies. Things are the way they are because the founders created an evolving, changing process for selecting what works and doesn't work. And these visionary companies continue to come up with a stream of successful products and services.

  Other shattered myths. Playing it safe: They make bold, risky commitments and make them work most of the time. A great place to work: You fit and flourish or hate it and leave. Brilliant strategic planning; Best moves are made by trial and error. Beating competition: They concentrate on beating themselves. They believe in home-grown management; promotion from within. The authors conclude that new ideas will become obsolete faster than ever before, therefore corporate success must be ideological and provide common bonds of values, beliefs and aspirations.

  This is a landmark book. It goes beyond corporate concepts and provides new insights on growth for individuals, groups or organizations.
  
  

• Vision = Core Ideology + Envisioned Future
  By A20YP25X7RMHU8 on 2002-02-06
  James Collins is a management researcher from Boulder (Colorado) and Jerry Porras is a professor of organizational behavior and change at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. This book is really split up into three parts: (1) An introduction into the research.; (2) The core ideology of visionary companies.; (3) The habits of visionary companies; (4) Methods for implementation.
  
  The authors explain their research methods of this six-year research project into visionary companies. "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 authors used the term 'visionary', rather than just 'successful' or 'enduring', to reflect the fact they have distinguished themselves as a very special and elite breed of institutions. In order to compose these visionary companies the authors started with a set of criteria which those companies had to meet: (1) Premier institution in its industry; (2) widely admired by knowledgeable businesspeople; (3) made an indelible imprint on the world in which we live; (4) had multiple generations of chief executives; (5) been through multiple product (or service) life cycles; (6) founded before 1950. With these criteria in mind the authors select 18 visionary companies from a wide range of industries, plus 18 comparison companies (which are not weak or bad companies either).
  
  So what do these visionary companies have in common? They have core ideologies consisting of more than a bunch of nice-sounding platitudes. A visionary company's core ideology consists of core values ("The organization's essential and enduring tenets") and purpose ("The organization's fundamental reasons for existence beyond just making money"). But the authors comment that ocre ideology alone cannot make a visionary company. Ultimately, a visionary company is build up from a core ideology complemented with a drive for progress and a preservation of the core complemented with a stimulation for progress.
  
  The authors then turn their attention to the specific methods of preserving the core and stimulating progress that distinguishes visionary companies from the comparison companies. They split these methods up into: (1) Big hairy audaciou goals (BHAGs) ("Commitment to challenging, audicious goals and projects toward which a visionary company channels its efforts."); (2) Cult-like cultures ("Great places to work only for those who buy in to the core ideology; those who don't fit the ideology are ejected like a virus (preserves the core)."); (3)Try a lot of stuff and keep what works ("High levels of action and experimentation that produce new and unexpected paths of progress and enables visionary companies to mimic the biological evolution of specias (stimulates progress)."); (4) Home-grown management ("Promotion from within, bringing to senior levels only those who've spent significant time steeped in the coe ideology of the company (preserves the core)."); and (5) Good enough never is ("A continual process of relentless self-improvement with the aim of doing better and better, forever into the future (stimulate progress).")
  
  In the final chapters the authors provide a summary of the book, which they refer to as the vision framework: Articulating a vision = core ideology (core values and core purpose) + envisioned future (10 to 30 year BHAG and vivid descriptions). There are also some tools to create all these items in this framework. In this 3rd edition there is also 'a message for the new economy' in which the authors conclude that the dot-com craze is based on 'Built to Flip' and not 'Built to Last' ideas. They provide some questions for to check whether your organization is built to last or built to flip. This chapter is a waste paper.
  
  This is a good book into the habits of successful companies, although the habits are somewhat 'soft', and difficult to implement in existing companies. The biggest criticism McKinsey & Co had on this book: "We really love 'Built to Last' here, but unfortunately it's useless. ... all the companies in 'Built to Last' were always great. They were never average. But that's most of the world." As an reply to this criticism Collins has recently written 'Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap ... and Others Don't' (2001). My greatest criticism on this book is the amount of repetition and therefore I recommend others to go for the e-articles 'Build Your Company's Vision' and 'Turning Goals into Results', both by the authors of this book. I also recommend Jim Collins' latest article 'Level 5 Leadership' (2001) which is based on his latest book 'Good to Great'. This book is written in simple US-English.
  
  
• Inspirational Analysis of some of the World's Best Companies
  By AFVNLWT7UA8UO on 2000-05-14
  The subtitle of this book sums it up best: "successful habits of visionary companies". The authors of Built to Last researched a handful of exceptional "well-built" and performing companies and compared them to the "next-best-in-class" companies to determine what characteristics made the best companies better than all the rest. Their research led them to find many similarities among the "world class" companies which, of course, is what the main content of the book is about. This book had a large impact on me for a couple reasons. First, I've used many of the words and phrases that I learned here and transferred them to my working environment. (e.g. "mission", "vision", "core ideology", "core values", etc.) Second, I've been able to use many of the model companies in this book to teach others in my company how business should be managed. (e.g. Merck, Hewlett Packard, Motorola, Wal-Mart, Johnson & Johnson, etc.) There are so many good ideas in this book that I made a note to myself to "read it once every year just for some new ideas". I've taught business peers more from this book than any other I have read.
  
  
• Deeper than business tactics
  By A3SO4SZPDNW0S3 on 2000-08-13
  I'm not a business person, and don't willingly read business books. Yet this one has something to offer, even to me.

  These boys go about their research with serious intellectual integrity -- willing to let the evidence destroy their hypotheses and starting over with new ideas -- they come upon some deep and important truths about leadership. For example: Preserve the core philosophy, hold all else loosely. Look for ways to replace "either or" with "yes AND" Be a clockbuilder, not a timeteller.

  Among other ideas. I don't know if what is here is profound in the business world, as I don't exist in the business world. But it is often the simplest of simple truths -- the kind we tend to overlook.

  I read this as part of a staff of a campus ministry, and found it definitely helpful. I think any leader of ANYthing will find it helpful. If I ever go into business, I'll come back to it. There are no "quick steps to success" or get-rich plans, there is simple a strong philosophy of business clearly expressed.

  As I said, the boys have done their research, and are eager to show it. The book bogs down when they cite example after example of how their "visionary companies" have illustrated the concepts they are putting forward --proving to me that they're right, but testing my patience at the same time.
  
  

• One of the most influencial business books I've read
  By A210X2RGUK33RE on 2003-03-11
  As shared before, my review methodology is to give a book some time so I can accurately comment to the degree of which it impacted my life. In the case of "Built to Last," I am writing a review a full 3 years after completing this most excellent book.

  I am not exaggerating, then, when I say that this is among a select group of the most powerfully influential business books I've read. There is something about the methodology, the way the conclusions are presented, that makes it stand out as an excellent read. The content is, as some would say, quite "sticky."

  Take, for example, their selection criteria for what constitutes an "Visionary Company." The company had to be in business something like 60 years, so they can see how a culture had "outgrown" their genesis business model (think about that!!!). They had to be outstanding market leaders, so there is some tie to the bottom line, and so on. Personally, these metrics have become ingrained, such that I repeatedly find myself gauging where my organization is relative to these metrics.

  Secondly, the book expands upon each attribute of a "visionary company," such as having "big hairy audacious goals (BHAG's)," or having what some call a "cult-like culture." Each section expands upon each with direct examples of how the identified companies espouse these attributes.

  For example, there is much discussion on how firms such as Boeing is famous of undertaking aggressive projects (BHAG's), or how Nordstrom's culture is so powerful it's akin to oil and water (the right people just fit; the wrong people are self-ejected).

  I have found it fascinating, however, to watch the featured companies since completing the book. HP, for example. Why in God's name would HP chose to get into the PC business? This barely appears to align with "The HP Way." And for a while it appeared that Boeing no longer attacked BHAG's when they rejected the notion of a super-sonic passenger airliner, although their involvement in the Joint Task Force Fighter project certainly appeared in-line with their culture.

  Finally, I have noted many books whose authors were influenced by this book. Either the book itself was directly referenced, or the ideas were clearly gained from its reading. My recommendation: buy it and read it. I doubt you will ever forget it.
  
  

• Great Writing with Sketchy Conclusions
  By A1D1IDI5S9TN9D on 2005-04-28
  I don't think a lot of people realize that Built to Last was published in 1994. It is only with the skyrocket popularity of Good to Great (published in 2001, but a bestseller in 2005) that Built to Last has re-graced bookshelves at all. The technical aspects of the writing are wonderful, weaving convincing arguments the way a high school lyricist weaves urban tales for his friends. And with the same result: the study doesn't hold up, especially not with the 11 years of hindsight we have on it. For starters, much of the research is on consistent growth and performance of specific companies against the general stock market, from 1926 to 1990. While the author correctly points out that this era covers a fantastic amount of change, he wrongfully dismisses that point, continuing to build his thesis on the shaky foundation that "what worked through the 1950's and 1960's is bound to work today". "Built to Last" is an interesting business history, but a terrible roadmap for success.
  
  
  
• A huge business hit of the early 90s that has aged pretty well
  By AUHG8KSHI529U on 2006-09-11
  This is one of the business classics in the past twenty years. It has sold a huge number of copies and I am sure many of those purchased copies were actually read! As impressive as its sales numbers have been, the way it has affected the approach to the way business was discussed and talked about for the past dozen years has been even more impressive.
  
  Yes, there are always newer fads and business is subject to fads more than most fields of human endeavor. There are lots of theories about why this is so, but it might have something to do with the new managers coming in wanting to bring something new with them and so the previous guy's stuff is no good. Hence, something comes and something goes for reasons beyond its ability to run business in a sound and profitable way. However, when something comes along with some real substance it spreads and lasts, at least for awhile. The ideas of core values and big (hairy audacious) goals hit a chord and lasted. Of course, today they are part of the air businesspeople breathe rather than a quote from this book.
  
  The authors looked at a number of big companies and found a list of those that had been around a long time, been financially successful, and were on a roll at the time of this book (but they don't say this is one of their criteria). They also found some comparable big company that hadn't found the level of success of the "visionary company" as they call the successful firms. They then looked for some traits common to those big successful companies that might explain their success.
  
  The four big principles they came up with were: 1) Be a clock builder - or architect - not a time teller [once you read the chapter it will be clear], 2) Embrace the genius of the AND, 3) Preserve the core / stimulate progress, and 4) seek consistent alignment.
  
  All this has to do with being opportunistic, building the organization that best supports the opportunities you are pursuing rather than letting the organization dictate what you pursue, that success requires doing seemingly contradictory goals simultaneously, making sure that the core culture gets preserved (if it has been a successful culture), and making sure that the whole process is focused on the core ideology - the core values and core purpose of the organization. Sounds simple? It's not. And even so, the "visionary" companies the book lauded a dozen years ago have all, or almost all, fallen on various levels of hard times since the book came out.
  
  This fact is addressed in a soft way in the frequently asked questions addition for this paperback addition. There is also a new last chapter on building the vision and a section on questions for research (this acknowledges areas left unexplained by the book).
  
  A book that has been this influential deserves your attention if you are interested in business literature. However, as with all of these books, use the principles as they apply to your real life in the real world of competitive business rather than treating them as some kind of final truth.
  
  
• Spiritual Pursuit
  By ABKDG3HBD3ZXT on 2000-01-20
  While making money in the short run seems to be the going craze for most of the young people around, "Built to Last" gives a welcome relief by bringing to the fore what GREAT men (and women) have done to their companies (and society)by nurturing ideals of achieving time-defying success that rewrites the rule of success.

  As the CEO of a growing education organisation, almost every word of this book struck a chord deep down in my heart. The notions of long term loyalty to a motive far beyond money-making is too enthralling ! I tried it out on myself for the past 4 years and presto ! It works ! Sudden extra doses of energies pump through your veins and the future looks crystal clear...though the haze of the coming net based society remains an impediment- a welcome one.

  Galvanizing workforce across the length and breadth of your corporation has always needed either an extremely charismatic leader who could tie all individual goals to something more transcendental or teach people the virtue of looking beyond the bottomline.

  I practised this policy for some years and at the latest AGM of my orgnsn., I was happy to see the stunned faces of many when I posed the question to them all "A hundred years from now when all of us would be dead and gone, where would our organisation be ?"

  The looks on the faces were telltale. I got the message clearly. "Built to Last" is the only reason and motivation that keeps me ticking every day, with an energy level greater than others.

  Suggestions -- All the young managers out there...read this one. It will change forever your life strategy. Yes, it will !
  
  

• Great lessons, well illustrated and practical
  By A3IBOQ8R44YG9L on 2000-05-09
  I read this book about three years ago and have come back to it many times since -- this is not something I can say about many business books. What makes this different is that 1) it has solid research behind it and 2) the writers have successfully organized it to be read as a compelling narrative AND to be usable as a reference. It was at the core of our own organization's effort to discover and articulate our values, which in turn helped us focus as we rapidly grew from a small to medium sized company.

  I also bought the audio cassette as a bit of crutch to get through it the first time. Though it requires your attention and a little rewinding, I found this a great way to both get the core concepts to sink in and, since then, to refresh my memory on occasion.

  Last note. I have had the opportunity to work with two of the mentioned 'Visionary' companies described in the book and can attest to their substantive cultural difference and the impact it has on the motivation and focus of their people. Highly recommended for a wide range of readers.
  
  

• Built to last rocks
  By AIU1ZD4DG41VJ on 2000-12-01
  This book zooms straight into my list of essential business books alongside Innovator's Dilemma and Social Life of Information among others ( see my definitive business books list). I read this book while developing a "core value discovery" program for my young company, and this book and In Search of Excellence were bibles. The writing is clear and lucid and though the principles outlined seem obvious, the number of companies that think these too idealistic (read hard) to follow or too removed from the bottom line to matter would argue otherwise.

  One of the earlier customer reviews correctly points out that the book is based on the premise that "Built to Last" is an ideal worth striving for and argues that a "Built to Flip" corporate mentality may be just as valid. This book is about building an organization with institutionalized capabilities that uniquely enable it create value into perpetuity - whether in one distinct organizational form or a multiplicity of morphed states. If flipping is based on selling out before others realise that the Emperor has no clothes (or that the Emperor is wearing a hired Tux) then this must assume that the organization's walls don't leak - a difficult assumption to make in today's connected economy full of promiscuous investors and employees-with-modems.

  The principles to tattoo on my forehead
  

  Focus on Organizational Building - Clock Building not time telling
  

  Core Values that transcend profits - if the value will not outlive a market that penalizes it then it is not core
  

  Authenticity of the value is more important than it's morality - "Better to have believed amiss than never to have believed at all".
  

  Align & re-align the organization around the values - "un-reinforced core values never die ... they become empty marketing slogans"
  

  Beware the Tyranny of the OR - "The test of a 1st rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function"
  
  
  

• A ravishing look at current management practices
  By AHCI2PFXMEU4A on 2001-01-19
  The authors of 'Built To Last' has researched 18 highly successful companies and 18 of their respective competitors, who also has done well - but not as good, and come up with some interesting theories that in essence supports the chaos theory. Fascinating!

  Not that current management practices is slaughtered, but rather enhanced and evolved. E.g, anyone who has read Dilbert knows to hate vision statements. In comparison, 'Big Hairy Audacious Goals' are the same but they are i-n-s-p-i-r-i-n-g. And did you know that many of todays market leaders like HP and Sony started off without any "big idea"? They also kill a few other myths along the way, like - it is always interesting to work in a firm which has a vision.

  After resolving the myths the authors explore some common ground to why these companies are so successful and which should be relevant to most companies: You can have the cake AND the dessert, Ask yourself: why do our company exist?, find and preserve the core/stimulate progress, build a culture, try a lot of stuff and keep what works, develop your own top management (who knows the system better?) and compete with yourself.

  Now, these companies are the major players in their respective markets, and how these theories work for smaller companies is an important question. As is the question of how these big firms did things to become successful. Was it a shot of luck in the nick of the time? Following their examples today might be painful due to the everchanging rules of this game.

  Nevertheless there are a lot experience to feed upon here and the lessons learned might prove worthwile, even though you just follow some of the guidelines.
  
  

• Core values start at the top and take you to the top
  By A1IU7S4HCK1XK0 on 2001-03-08
  I've had the privilege of working for one of the companies mentioned in Built to Last. I've stayed a decade because the core values work for me and let me work according to my moral values.

  What's fun about this book is that it does describe how 100,000 employees can each share the vision and make it happen. Believe it or not, the core values are not tablets in stone, written in a handbook or on the entrance wall; they are discussed and mentioned as guideposts by people every day.

  Our company core values have been described in books and in magazine articles many,many times. What is done so well in this book is the side-by-side comparison. That was the part I found most interesting.

  I imagine that in the past, the last thing on a Dot-Com's CEO's mind was setting up core values for establishing a company that would last rather than lucrative options, soaring share prices and explosive growth. Some of these companies shoot up and then die away like fireworks rockets. Maybe if they'd set up core values, they'd still be on a roll.
  
  

• What do we stand for and why do we exist?
  By on 2002-06-28
  Who should read this book?
  The result of 5 years of research for what made the great companies, if you want to know this

  Great read.
  A balance review would be to read the first two customer reviews.

  How I went about reading this book?
  I did not read the book word for word. I felt that I did not need to do it because the writing is slightly wordy for my taste.
  I read the customer reviews, 42 page sample pages, went to my local Barnes and Noble book store and browse through the book in about under 2 hours. I browse and read the beginning, the table of content, the ending of the book, reading from the back of the book toward the front, taking notes on ideas that caught my attention, looking at the summary at the end of each chapter, looking at any interesting diagram, graphs, charts, and visuals, and reading accompanying text.

  One would think with 5 years plus of exhaustive research, comparison, financial analysis, there would be more to the data. But at last as the authors wrote in many chapters, the fundamental idea of management has not truly change in 50 years. Great ideas do within stand the test of time, great civilizations, great countries, great philosophy religious or not, great biological system, great species.

  12 Myths of great companies
  Read page 19 to 23 of the sample pages

  The following are my notes:
  What do we stand for and why do we exist?
  Then, change

  Get back to basic

  Stream Analysis Software, used for organizational change diagnosis

  Leadership- display high level of persistence, overcome significant obstacles, attracted dedicated people, influenced groups of people toward the achievement of goals.

  Listen to the customers (Lesson: Listen)
  Ask "why?" (Lessons: Questions)
  Encourage persistence (Lesson: Perserverance)

  Build the ticking clock! (Imagine all the qualities and features of a ticking clock. It is enduring. It keeps accurate time. It is reliable. It is constantly ticking. It does not stop ticking. It does not need much maintenance. It does one thing really well and that is pretty much all it does. It tells time. Inside the clock, it is very complex, precise, elaborate, and require great skill to build. The material and craftmanship of a ticking mechanical clock have to be of the highest order to keep accurate time. In contrast to the complexity of the inside from the the outside, the clock looks rather simple mechanically. A ticking second hand, a long minute hand, and short hour hand, they all move and tell the time. Build a self perpetuating learning organization. Human resource is the most important resource of a company. Hire the best you can afford. Train them well. Give them room for mistake and failure. Develop them into leader.)

  3M
  Listen to anyone with an original idea, no matter now absurb it might sound at first.
  Encourage; don't nitpick. Let people run with their idea.
  Hire good people, and leave them alone.
  If you put fences around people, you get sheep. Give people the room they need.
  Encourage experimental doodling.
  Give it a try and quick!

  Darwin: variation and selection.

  HP
  People have inherent need to make contribution to society.
  Provide real satisfaction to real customers.
  Of course we must do it for profit, because we can not exist without profit.
  Profit is not the reason for existence.

  Cult: Authenticity and consistent alignment of the ideology

  Deeds, more than words

  Big Hairy Audacious Goals

  consistency of principle

  right frame of mind, shift of perspective

  Nordstrom
  Welcome to your company. We're glad to have you with us. Our number one goal is to provide outstanding customer service. Set both your personal and professional goals high. We have great confidence in your ability to achieve them. Rules: Use your good judgement in all situations. There will be no addditional rules. Please feel free to ask your manager any question at any time.
  
  

• Must Reading for Every Leader
  By A1JIPFV4OL520T on 2003-09-09
  Wow! What a book. In it the authors look at visionary companies and what separates them from their top competitors. This is not a book about charismatic leaders or dynamic products, but a book about vision, values and risk taking. It is a book that every buinessman and pastor ought to read.

  For the pastor of a church the greatest strength of Built to Last is that it is a book about business not about the church. The concepts of vision, quality, excellence, leadership training, and of risk taking are all biblical concepts. If God honors non-Christiand when they act according to His principles, how much more will He honor the church of the Living God?
  
  This book is filled with hundred of specific examples how these principles transformed ordinary businesses into visionary companies. The contrast between the visionary companies and their competition is sobering. As I read how the ordinary competition would shoot themselves in the foot time and time again, the picture of the local church came to my mind. The failure to establish vision, to articulate core values, to promote a team atmosphere, and to maintain consistent pastoral leadership has resulted in mediocre churches.

  This book seemed to be dealing with something that small rural pastors would never deal with, being a visionary church. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that the size of the church is irrelevant. The question is: Are we doing great things for God? What are we trying to do that would only be possible if God were in it.

  This book is must reading for every leader, whether he or she leads a business or nonprofit organization.
  
  

• Core values, core beliefs, stimulated progress, and wealth accumulation
  By A5WMBIOGE8Q6N on 2006-06-07
  Built to last means preserving the core ideology and beliefs and stimulate progress over long periods of time. Visionary companies have well defined values and know their core purpose for existence. Visionary companies use process and process analysis to discipline and move their organization. The processes, engineering, and management closely adhere company core beliefs. Visionary companies over power and outcompete comparison companies by taking on bold commitments of change. BHAG maybe both daunting and risky, but the adventure, excitement, and challenge of it grabs people in the guts and momentum flowing. Visionary companies take a "try and see if it works" attitude. Visionary companies make some of their best moves by experimentation, trial and error, opportunism, and by accident. Visonary company CEO and management rise up through the ranks and rarely come from the outside. Visionary companies focus on beating themselves. Visionary companies elevate in stature through thousands of well defined processes.
  
  Social Darwinism is 1800s and it is old hat. Attributing social darwinism as the reasons for corporate success is like fitting a square in a round hole, it doesn't make sense. The authors praise visionary corporations by personifying corporations by use phrases like "cult-like" devotion, "evolutionary" attributes, "survival of the fittest" emergence, as glorification and justifications. Cults are idol worshippers and so the authors seem to be suggesting visionary company achieve cult like status among their followers.
  
  It is exhausting how many times authors seem to praise and give tribute too the Darwin's survival of the fittest doctrines, as if this doctrine was the reason corporations have withstood the test of time. The evolution jargon and rhetoric seems pointless. The fit and flourish principles mercilessly pounds a path to its objectives and destroys the worth of the individual. The actualization of this doctrine being, a fit individual in the visionary company will be happy. The corporate God becomes the source of mans happiness. Corporation devices transfer wealth, product products and service, and preserve wealth.
  
  The history of corporations demonstrates they amass great wealth by promoting opulence, manipulation tax laws, and gain legality monopoly power stifling competition. These practice provide an unfair advantage in the market place and have stifled competition allowing great accumulate wealth uncontested. Core Ideology can not explain how $1 invested from 1926-1990 would return $6,356.
  
  Second, visionary companies most like did not perform beyond the comparison companies during boom periods. Instead visionary companies had deep pockets to weather the bust periods and received large transfers of wealth which allowed them staying power. Investors typically flee innovation and growth oriented medium size companies during bust periods and sink their money into large cap companies. Large companies buy up innovative small companies during boom periods to avoid disruptive technologies from disturbing their empires. So the whole ideology of what made the visionary companies wealth could be incorrectly place. Wealth does not have to prove itself.
  
  The authors could have explained their observations simply as follows: 1. Enduring great companies decide what core values it holds to be core, largely independent of the current environment, competitive requirements, or management fads. When defining values focus on "actual" verses "should" values. The core values can be anything and they do not have to reflect moralistic, humanistic, or enlightening values. 2. The core purpose for the organizations being. The core purpose reflects the importance people attach to the company's work and taps into the idealistic motivations. Purpose should not be confused with specific goals or business strategies. A purpose should be able to last 100 years. A purpose does not change, yet it inspires change. Core ideology and envisioning the future are not the same. BHAG is envisioning the future. Defining the core ideology is discovery, whereas, BHAG is creativity. BHAG is creating the future not predicting the future. Most companies want to analyze their way into the future and this does not work. "The envisioned future must be truly exciting to those inside the organization, otherwise it's just not a full-fledge BHAG. Indeed, the envisioned future should produce a bit of the gulp factor when it dawns on people what it will take to achieve the goal and the level of commitment to the goal, there should be an almost audible gulp"
  
  Merck core values: corporate social responsibility, excellence in all aspects of the company, science-based innovation, honesty and integrity, and profit from work that benefits humanity.
  
  Merck purpose: To preserve and improve human life.
  
  Merck BHAG: To transform the company into the preeminent drug-making company in the world.
  
  Sony core values: elevation of the Japanese national culture and status, being a pioneer, respect and encourage of individual ability and creativity.
  
  Sony purpose: To experience the sheer joy of innovation and the application of technology for the benefit and pleasure of the general public.
  
  Sony BHAG: Change the worldwide image of Japanese products as one of high quality.
  
  3M: Innovation, integrity, respect for individual initiative and personal growth, tolerance for honest mistakes, product quality and reliability, and "our real business is solving problems".
  
  American Express: Heroic customer service, worldwide reliability, and encouragement of individual incentive.
  
  Boeing: lead edge of aeronautics, tackling huge challenges, product safety and quality, "To eat, breath, and sleep" the world of aeronautics.
  
  Citicorp: Expansionism, being out front, autonomy and entrepreneurship, meritocracy, aggressiveness and self-confidence.
  
  Ford: People as source of strength, products as end results, profits as necessary means, honest and integrity.
  
  GE: Improve quality of life through technology and innovation; interdependence balance between customers, employees, society, and shareholders; individual responsibility and opportunity, and honest and integrity.
  
  HP: Technical contributions, respect and opportunity for HP people, contribution and responsibility to communities, affordable quality, and profit and growth.
  
  IBM: Giver full consideration to IBM employee, spend time making customers happy, and go the last mile to make things right.
  
  J&J: alleviate pain and disease, customer centered, and decentralize-be creative-and productive.
  
  Marriott: Friendly service, people are number 1, work hard, continual self-improvement, and overcome adversity to build character.
  
  Motorola: Superior quality products and service, continues self-renewal, latent creative power within, and treat employee with dignity.
  
  Nordstrom: Service to the customer, hard work and productivity, continuous improvement, and excellence in reputation.
  
  Phillip Morris: Personal freedom of choice, winning, individual initiative, achieve on merit, and hard work.
  
  P&G: product excellence
  
  Wal-Mart: Swim upstream, run lean, and value to the customer.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Outstanding view of how to create the most lasting success
  By A1K1JW1C5CUSUZ on 1999-01-24
  The concept behind this book is brilliant: What makes companies that outperform their peers for decades enjoy that success. The most important lesson of this book is to create lasting ways of managing your business successfully, that will outlive the skills and perspective of any one person, no matter how talented. The book is fun to read. I liked the way the ideas were described: Big, hairy, audacious goals is a fun concept just from the title. One of the most useful ideas is that we need to hold conflicting ideas in our minds, such as "do more" and "spend less". English often suggests that conflicts exist in what can be done that do not really exist in practice. This book is outstanding for "telling it like it is". Of particular interest to investors will be the stock-price charts showing how valuable these lessons are for public companies and their shareholders.
  
  
• A Business Student's Perspective
  By A28QT8ST47OHLJ on 2002-03-03
  Having spent the last four years of our lives being taught to think about every business problem in a particular way, it was great to read a business book that encourages you to "think outside of the box." We have read many textbooks in our time at University, and it was refreshing to read a book that expressed clear and simple ideas that we will remember after we graduate. "Built To Last" started off strong by `shattering' the 12 well-known "myths" that they teach us in school. The book then continued with the author's model that is based around the premise of preserving the core ideology, and stimulating progress within the organization; it uses simple points that build on one another to create a first-rate framework. The authors make their points at the beginning of each chapter and then build on them with numerous examples of `visionary' companies...Some of our favorite points were:
  - The true definition of a core ideology; including the distinction between a core purpose and core values;
  - Encourage trying lots of stuff and keeping what works;
  - And, "The Genius of the And"...it is possible to have two things at once.
  Although, this book was primarily targeted towards entrepreneurs and CEO's, we found that we could use this book for our future career search and within our daily lives. For example, the chapter titled Cults and Cultures outlined the extraordinary commitment employees have to their particular organization; Personally, we don't think we have what it takes to be a true "Nordie," but it gave us insight into what characteristics and traits to be looking for in an organization we would like to work for.
  Some of the inferior traits of the book are that there were some parts in the novel where the authors seem to stretch their examples to fit within their framework, and they came across as being slightly bias to their own theories. We also found that they never mention the same company in every chapter, which made it harder to follow and also harder to believe that every visionary company fit all aspects of their model. However, overall, this book is an easy read, with a simple model that makes sense. It uses interesting companies and is backed up by 6 years of intense research. We recommend this book to any student who is looking to think on different terms than what we are being taught in school.
  
  
• The Perfect Business Book - A Must Read
  By on 2004-07-15
  The next time you see a book that casts a business leader as a mythical or heroic figure, go back to this book and see if the leader passes the 'Level 5 Leader' tests. Sandy Weill, for example, fails that test miserably, since he cares nothing for his company or its employees, and only about feeding his insatiable appetite for personal profit, self-aggrandizement, and great food, in that order. Weill is an example of the so-called celebrity leaders who are very reluctant to groom and name their successors, since they care far more about holding onto their power than for the longer-term welfare of the company and its employees. The last thing you'd see these quasi-leaders do is sacrifice their power or money for longer benefit of the company. Eisner is another perfect example of Emperor-CEO who got paid obscene amount of money and drove out top talents from Disney, while its business and stock prices languished badly.

  A perfect business book - erudite, entertaining, and relevant - and a must-read for anyone who ever dreamed of becoming (or simply working for) the true business leader.
  
  

• embrace the power of "and"
  By AKXSTJQH1YUL7 on 2004-10-21
  Collins and Porras' basic observation in this book, where they compare the practices of visionary to those of a matched set of good, though not great, companies, is that average companies are driven by the power of "or:" You can have either short term profits OR long term growth, either stability OR progress. Visionary companies, on the contrary, embrace the power of "and:" You can preserve the core AND stimulate progress.
  
  That said, the authors go on to describe how great companies build structures that embrace these often contradictory goals. The great companies Collins and Porras study, contrary to popular belief, are not profit focused at their core. Instead, they are `value' focused. These values are a sort of nucleus, around which leaders in visionary companies grow the company.
  
  And that is not the only difference between visionary companies and the more average comparison companies. The visionary companies surveyed consistently produced leaders steeped in the company's ideology. These home grown leaders are the result of deliberate corporate design, an orientation to corporate structure that the authors call "clock building instead of time telling." In short, among the final products of visionary companies are competent leaders that carry on the core. And once developed, these leaders are then encouraged to experiment boldly, keeping only what works (i.e. what is effective and in alignment with the core).
  
  A very entertaining book, it is among the best, easiest to follow guide to strategy imaginable. I also like the fact that it addresses not only macro level concerns, but also provides guidelines to help folks like me, stuck in middle management positions, apply these concepts. It is well written, the case studies compelling, and I like being able to follow the authors' research methods in the appendices. It is this thorough research which raises the book several notches above the now-classic "In Search of Excellence."
  
  
  
• Inspiring, but lacking analytical rigor.
  By A1Y3KJMVHVOUE1 on 2005-12-09
  This is an inspiring book, and informative. It answers the "what" question convincingly. I missed answers to the "why" questions. Why, for example, are successful visionary companies characterized by their emphasis on ethical standards? There are many possible explanations: the staff of the company are inspired by the ideals and give more to their employer; the companies reap payoffs in the long term from grateful recipients of their honorable deeds; the companies acquire a good reputation which increases sales and hence profits. More interesting, is the question of the logic of ethics in the business game - not even touched by these authors.
  
  According to Jim Collins and Jerry Porras, it does not matter what the company ideology is, as long as it is passionately believed by the management and employees. I find this a dubious claim, and not supported by the data. The ideological frameworks of the companies that were studied are not interchangeable, not for the trivial reason that the ideology of another company happens not to be the one believed by each of them. Boeing is unlikely to spend money on a program to cure river blindness in Africa. Why does Merck do this? Clearly, a pharmaceutical firm does well to invest in a reputation for medical generosity that flows from a passion for making people well? Merck is purchasing precisely the trust that pays-off in the medical market place. Trust reduces transaction costs, and in some cases is almost as good as a monopoly. Boeing, on the other hand, must buy a brand name attached to their dedication to engineering excellence. It does matter what companies are passionate about.
  
  My company operates on the Internet. Our pledge includes the words: "The tragedy of the commons is the propensity of users to take more from the commons than they give. We undertake to contribute more to the commons than we take. Our presence shall make the Internet safer, more useful and greater fun." Why is this a suitable ideology for our company? The answer is not that this is one we happen to believe in, and feel passionate about - although we do. Rather, this ideology is strategically fitting. We enhance to our brand name, and therefore the value of our software, by adding our reputation to the web applications we write.
  
  In one of our daughter businesses we are a broker of information from merchants to consumer (information about products that are available) and from consumer to merchant (we generate real time demand curves for a large range of commodities). We have pledged not to become a trader. Why? In ethical terms, we should not be a trader because our insider information would give rise to conflict of interest. The trust that we gain by not being a trader, and hence remaining a disinterested supplier of market information, enables us to broker Coasian agreements with reduced transaction costs between the parties on the Internet. The advantage is large. It is on the Internet commons that trust is scarce. We are able to purchase this by foregoing some potentially profitable trades, and that pays us more in the long term in our role as an information service provider.
  
  Our ideology was designed to give us the greatest possible strategic advantage in our markets. That is not to say we do not believe in our ideals, but that the nature of our ideology is important. It does matter what we believe. It matters what you believe, and it matters that you understand that it matters.
  
  I strongly recommend "The Modern Firm" by Roberts. Read this alongside "Built to Last". Roberts is a harder read, but he gets under the logic of corporate dynamics better than Collins and Porras. Because "Built to Last" is characterized by an ubiquitous analytical paucity, Jim Collins and Jerry Porras' interpretations of their data are not always correct. That is a pity. Their findings are exciting, inspiring even, and the book despite its limitations is a good read.
  
  
• Excellent Research, Very Helpful Findings
  By A29A1T4M1UW4HX on 2007-03-25
  I would not necessarily agree that the predecessor was a better book. The two books have different purposes, and I believe both are very helpful.
  
  The authors present their research process and findings, as well as 12 myths:
  
  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. [Note: by this, they do not mean to say that values are not important; on the contrary. However, they explain that there is no specific set of values common to all successful companies, but that these vary from one to another.]
  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 the competition.
  Myth #11: You can't have your cake and eat it too.
  Myth #12: Companies become visionary primarily through "vision statements".
  
  The authors debunk each of these myths by presenting their findings.
  
  One of the most powerful lessons, which I underlined, is this: "... most of them view their products and services as making useful and important contributions to customers' lives... they exist to do something useful..."
  
  The authors show that companies with long-term and solid success throughout time are not simply focused on making money or growing their business by X% annually. They have a stronger and greater mission, and their products and service exist primarily to support that vision. This is why, even when products become obsolete, the company with a strong sense of purpose continues to change and evolve beyond product life cycles. An important lesson for most companies in corporate America.
  
  
• The essence of leadership
  By A3SYFQ338BBZUN on 2000-03-06
  Until reading Built to Last I regarded "vision" as a rare attribute possessed by a select group of successful individuals, something far out of my limited reach. However, Collins and Porras showed that I can acquire vision in three steps: discover those core values or principles most important to me above all others, identify my firm's fundamental reason for being, and `envision a future' through creating audacious organizational goals and vivid descriptions of their achievement. The authors provided me with a valuable template I will use to find my own, unique vision. Thanks to them my new understanding and appreciation of vision will promote the development of a strong, positive corporate culture in my firm.

  Built to Last is one of the few books that I will return to time and again for advice, long after my textbooks are gone.

  For help with discovering my core values, I found Covey's "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" another "must-read."
  
  

• Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't
• Good to Great and the Social Sectors: A Monograph to Accompany Good to Great
• First, Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently
• Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done
• The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People