Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies: Amazon.de: James C. Collins, Jerry I. Porras: Englische Bücher

Aus der Amazon.de-Redaktion

Dieser Titel ist in englischer Sprache.
Diese Analyse der Faktoren, die große Firmen groß machen, wurde überall sofort als ein Klassiker und eines der besten Business-Bücher seit In Search of Excellence bejubelt. Die Autoren, James C. Collins und Jerry I. Porras, recherchierten sechs Jahre lang und geben offen zu, daß ihre eigene vorgefaßte Meinung über geschäftlichen Erfolg durch ihre tatsächlichen Ergebnisse zerschmettert wurde -- und so ging es allen anderen mehr oder weniger auch.

Built to Last greift 18 visionäre Firmen heraus und stellt fest, was an ihnen besonders ist. Um auf die Liste zu kommen, mußte eine Firma weltweit bekannt sein, ein herausragendes Markenimage besitzen und mindestens 50 Jahre alt sein. Hier geht es um Firmen, von denen sogar der Laie weiß, daß sie, sagen wir mal, anders sind: Firmen vom Kaliber Disney, Wal-Mart oder Merck.

Was auch immer bei diesen Firmen der Schlüssel zum Erfolg sein mag, der Schlüssel zum Erfolg dieses Buches ist die Tatsache, daß die Autoren keine Zeit damit verschwenden, diese Firmen mit geschäftlichen Mißerfolgen zu vergleichen. Statt dessen benutzen sie eine Kontrollgruppe aus "erfolgreichen, aber zweitrangigen" Firmen, um hervorzuheben, was an ihren 18 visionären Firmen so besonders ist. Auf diese Weise wird Disney mit Columbia Pictures verglichen, Ford mit General Motors, Hewlett Packard mit Texas Instruments und so weiter.

Am wenigsten trifft das Gerücht zu, so die Autoren, daß visionäre Firmen mit einem erfolgreichen Produkt anfangen und von charismatischen Managern in die Zukunft geführt werden müssen. Sie geben zu, daß es Beispiele dieses Musters gibt: Johnson & Johnson, beispielsweise. Aber es gibt einfach zu viele Gegenbeispiele -- von den visionären Firmen passen sogar die meisten nicht in dieses Schema, darunter Riesen wie 3M, Sony und TI. Sie hatten anfänglich weder irgendeinen Geschäftsplan noch eine Schlüsselidee vorzuweisen und zeichneten sich durch erstaunlich zurückhaltende Manager aus. Collins und Porras waren viel mehr von etwas anderem beeindruckt: Von der geradezu kultischen Hingabe zu einer Kernideologie oder Identität sowie einer aktiven Indoktrination der Angestellten mit dem Ziel, eine ideologische Ergebenheit gegenüber der Firma zu erreichen.

Der Vergleich mit der "B-Mannschaft" wirft allerdings ein bedeutendes methodologisches Problem auf: Welche Firmen sollen überhaupt als visionär eingestuft werden? Es hat etwas von einem Zirkelschluß, wenn man visionären Status erreicht, indem man -- visionären Status besitzt. Es führen so viele Wege nach Rom, daß das Buch weniger praktisch ist, als es erscheinen mag. Aber genau darum geht es in einem eloquenten Kapitel über 3M. Diese überaus erfolgreiche Firma hatte keinen Gesamtplan, eine schwache Struktur und keine Primadonnen. Dafür besaß sie eine Atmosphäre, in der intelligente Leute daran interessiert waren, daß die Firma Erfolg hatte, und keine Angst davor hatten, "einen Haufen Dinge auszuprobieren und das, was funktionierte, zu behalten". --Richard Farr

Amazon.co.uk

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 characterised 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 "ideological commitment" to the company.

The comparison with the business "B"-team does tend to raise a significant methodological problem: which companies are to be counted as "visionary" in the first place? There's an air of circularity here, as if you achieve "visionary" status by ... achieving visionary status. So many roads lead to Rome that the book is less practical than it might appear. But that's exactly the point of an eloquent chapter on 3M. This wildly successful company had no master plan, little structure and no prima donnas. Instead it had an atmosphere in which bright people were both keen to see the company succeed and unafraid to "try a lot of stuff and keep what works." --Richard Farr, Amazon.com -- Dieser Text bezieht sich auf eine vergriffene oder nicht verf�gbare Ausgabe dieses Titels.

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The essence of leadership 6. M�rz 2000

Von John Leggatt

Format:Taschenbuch

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."

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Spiritual Pursuit 20. Januar 2000

Von Sandeep Manudhane

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 !

New insights on growth for people and organizations 3. Januar 2000

Von James L. Grubb

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.