Kundenrezensionen

Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies

5 Sterne:		(44)
4 Sterne:		(3)
3 Sterne:		(1)
2 Sterne:		(2)
1 Sterne:		(1)

 

 

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."

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 !

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.

"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.

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.

This is a book which will be a guiding beacon today and even hundered years from now. The principles which the authors have enumerated are time tested ones. I wish there were more books like this.

This wonderful book shatters the widely held myths about the success secrets of great companies.It substitutes the myths with the real life facts of enduring companies. The methodology followed to arrive at various conclusions in writing the book is really innovative. The idea of selecting a comparison group of companies (control group) gives more validity to the authors conclusions.The concept that visionary companies does not require charismatic leaders;gives a sigh of releif to many great leaders who are pragmatic but lack the charisma.The concept that a great company need not be conceived by a great idea gives relief to aspiring entrepreneurs who are wondering where they can start thier work.The notion of profit maximization was mockered to the point; where no thinking entrepreneur can dare to imitate it anymore. It goes to prove the great saying a doctor who's hand is on the purse of the patient; but not on the pulse-can neither earn money nor satisfy the patient.The emphasis on core values indicates the principle centeredness of the visionary companies in an age of quick buck and sheer opportunism.The explanation of the role played by the darwinian dynamics in the developemental process and growth of a company is commendable. It takes the management theory another step ahead in our times.Self-propelled competition is another eye opening idea.To be centered around the notion of 'OR' instead of the realistic approach of being oriented around the 'AND' takes the book closer to the Taoist dialectical view of the world.Visionary companies centering around beliefs and core ideology rather than around policies,practices, and goals is an important observation.The concept of 'Big hairy audacious goals' shows the pragmatism of authors in their approach to practical realities of the business.Ultimately the reader of the book is left with shattered myths, and battered illusions about successful business.

D.Papa Rao

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.

If you are trying to build a business that stands for something that you can imagine being around a hundred years from now, you have to read this book. If I could only get you to read one book, this is the one I'd give you.

Built to Last must be teached at Business School in our universities. It shows clearly in its findings,the correct orientation to obtain the result that our Manager today need: put the values, principles in first place, and in second place the profit, like a natural implication. Besides, it explains with clear support, the advantages of planning and defining a long term vision.