Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies

Amazon.com
This analysis of what makes great companies great has been hailed everywhere as an instant classic and one of the best business titles since In Search of Excellence. The authors, James C. Collins and Jerry I. Porras, spent six years in research, and they freely admit that their own preconceptions about business success were devastated by their actual findings--along with the preconceptions of virtually everyone else.

Built to Last identifies 18 "visionary" companies and sets out to determine what's special about them. To get on the list, a company had to be world famous, have a stellar brand image, and be at least 50 years old. We're talking about companies that even a layperson knows to be, well, different: the Disneys, the Wal-Marts, the Mercks.

Whatever the key to the success of these companies, the key to the success of this book is that the authors don't waste time comparing them to business failures. Instead, they use a control group of "successful-but-second-rank" companies to highlight what's special about their 18 "visionary" picks. Thus Disney is compared to Columbia Pictures, Ford to GM, Hewlett Packard to Texas Instruments, and so on.

The core myth, according to the authors, is that visionary companies must start with a great product and be pushed into the future by charismatic leaders. There are examples of that pattern, they admit: Johnson & Johnson, for one. But there are also just too many counterexamples--in fact, the majority of the "visionary" companies, including giants like 3M, Sony, and TI, don't fit the model. They were characterized by total lack of an initial business plan or key idea and by remarkably self-effacing leaders. Collins and Porras are much more impressed with something else they shared: an almost cult-like devotion to a "core ideology" or identity, and active indoctrination of employees into "ideologically commitment" to the company.

FROM OUR EDITORS

The Barnes & Noble Review
Jim Collins and Jerry Porras begin their groundbreaking analysis of "visionary companies" with the following bold statement: "We believe every CEO, manager, and entrepreneur should read this book." Although their language may sound slightly hubristic, the authors actually deliver the promised goods: Written in eloquent and accessible language, Built to Last, the result of an extensive six-year research study conducted at Stanford University, is a classic business book that surely deserves the accolades critics, readers, and its creators have heaped upon it.

Collins and Porras begin by defining the type of organizations they intend to examine. American Express, Ford, GE, Nordstrom, and Walt Disney are some of the 18 visionary companies -- widely admired, crown-jewel institutions that were founded before 1950 and have left "an indelible imprint on the world in which we live" -- to fall into the purview of their study. The authors then proceed to offer 12 management myths shattered by their research into these companies. Perhaps the most significant of these debunked pieces of conventional wisdom is the idea that change is the sole constant in the business world. Instead, Collins and Porras argue, "a visionary company almost religiously preserves its core ideology -- changing it seldom, if ever." From this adherence to a fundamental set of beliefs or a deeply held sense of self-identity comes the discipline and drive that enables a company to succeed in rapidly changing, volatile environments.

One of the enjoyable things about reading Built to Last is that its authors consciously chose to avoid the trendy phrases that sometimes make business books seem no more weighty or enduring than magazine articles. Instead, Collins and Porras have written a book that is meaningful, passionate, based on careful study, and, in its own way, built to last. (Sunil Sharma)

ANNOTATION

Fundamentally altering the way the executives think about long-term success, Built to Last has become a bible among CEOs and managers at prestigious corporations the world over.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

This is not a book about charismatic visionary leaders. It is not about visionary product concepts or visionary products or visionary market insights. Nor even 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 James C. Collins and Jerry I. 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?" 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 outstanding 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.

FROM THE CRITICS

Kevin Maney - USA Today

Built to Last...is one of the most eye-opening business studies since In Search of Excellence.

T.J. Rodgers

A 'must read' for any CEO who aspires to create a great company.

Library Journal

What makes a visionary company? This book, written by a team from Stanford's Graduate School of Business, compares what the authors have identified as "visionary" companies with selected companies in the same industry.

The authors juxtapose Disney and Columbia Pictures, Ford and General Motors, Motorola and Zenith, and Hewlett-Packard and Texas Instruments, to name a few. The visionary companies, the authors found out, had a number of common characteristics; for instance, almost all had some type of core ideology that guided the company in times of upheaval and served as a constant bench mark. Not all the visionary companies were founded by visionary leaders, however.

On the whole, this is an intriguing book that occasionally provides rare and interesting glimpses into the inner workings and philosophical foundations of successful businesses. Recommended for all libraries.
-- Randy L. Abbott, University of Evansville Library, Indiana

BookList - Barbara Jacobs

No tables, charts, or obfuscatory language interfere with the presentation and development of consultants Collins and Porras' premise that visionary companies withstand tests of time and fads.

On the basis of five years of research, they pinpoint six characteristics of the best American institutions: (1) premier in their industry, (2) widespread admiration from businesspeople, (3) multiple generations of CEOs, (4) an indelible imprint on society, (5) multiproduct (or multiservice) cycles, and (6) pre-1950 roots. The authors' findings confirm a few management theories but contest many others. More important, they demonstrate the hows of good management in detail, with readable case histories (IBM, Merck, Motorola, Walt Disney, among others) and studies of contrasting corporations, and they include guidelines for those striving for long-lasting success.

AUTHOR DESCRIPTION

James C. Collins is a management educator and author based in Boulder, Colorado, where he operates a management learning laboratory dedicated to conducting new research and working with executives. He is coauthor of Beyond Entrepreneurship and Managing the Small to Mid-Sized Company. Previously, he worked at McKinsey & Company and Hewlett-Packard, and for seven years taught at Stanford University Graduate School of Business, where he received the Distinguished Teaching Award.