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Title: Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies by James C. Collins, Jerry I. Porras ISBN: 0887306713 Publisher: HarperCollins Pub. Date: October, 1994 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $26.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.57
Rating: 5
Summary: How to build it to last
Comment: 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.
Rating: 5
Summary: Unprecedented, Compelling, Well-Researched
Comment: "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.
Rating: 4
Summary: Smart and engaging... with two flaws
Comment: In a compelling and thoughtful way, "Built to Last" shows how companies achieve long-term success through adherence to core values and commitment to innovation. What a refreshing antidote to the more common trend of selling out for short-term gains! The companies profiled here are truly to be admired.
However, the book left me with two bones to pick. The first is the example of IBM as a "visionary" company. As history tells, Big Blue was dragged kicking and screaming into the PC age. Its calcified structure blinded it to the demise of the mainframe and the microcomputing revolution, and indeed it utterly ceded the PC's operating system to Microsoft -- a strategic blunder of epic scale. Though the "PC-compatible" platform that IBM developed eventually became industry standard, IBM profited little from it. Had IBM been truly a visionary firm, it would have seen the PC revolution coming and dominated it, keeping at bay upstarts like Microsoft, Apple, Dell and others who caught Big Blue sleeping.
The second oversight involves the near-complete omission of the DuPont Company. Here is a company -- one of the oldest in America, now entering its third century -- that has reinvented itself time and again, stayed on the bleeding edge, and has always been committed to its employees. If any company in the world is "built to last," DuPont is it.
NOTE: I have neither a grudge against IBM nor have any interest in DuPont. This is just the way I see it.
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Title: Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't by Jim Collins ISBN: 0066620996 Publisher: HarperCollins Pub. Date: 16 October, 2001 List Price(USD): $27.50 |
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Title: First, Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently by Marcus Buckingham, Curt Coffman ISBN: 0684852861 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pub. Date: May, 1999 List Price(USD): $27.00 |
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Title: Jack: Straight from the Gut by Jack Welch, John A. Byrne ISBN: 0446528382 Publisher: Warner Books Pub. Date: 11 September, 2001 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done by Larry Bossidy, Ram Charan, Charles Burck ISBN: 0609610570 Publisher: Crown Pub Pub. Date: 11 June, 2002 List Price(USD): $27.50 |
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Title: Beyond Entrepreneurship: Turning Your Business into an Enduring Great Company by James C. Collins, William C. Lazier ISBN: 0133815269 Publisher: Prentice Hall Press Pub. Date: October, 1995 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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