Jim collins jerrold mundis jerry i porras built to last

[...]... characteristic of the organization itself, independent of any individual leader, including himself He made the shift from being a social visionary to building an organization with an enduring social purpose—the shift from being a time-teller to being a clock-builder Social-cause organizations often begin in response to a speci c problem, much as companies often begin in response to a speci c great idea... speci cally for variations in tortoises, yet there they were—these big, waddling, weird-looking tortoises wandering around the islands and not fitting neatly into prior assumptions about species.6 We, too, wanted to stumble into a few unexpected, weird-looking tortoises that might provoke our thinking Of course, we wanted to be much more systematic than just wandering around aimlessly, hoping to randomly... have to see the entire race and the events that led up to it to look at the various runners during their training, during their prerace preparations, during mile one, mile two, mile three, and so on Similarly, we wanted to look back in time to nd answers to such intriguing questions as: • How did Motorola successfully move from a humble battery repair business into car radios, television, semiconductors,... 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 What is a visionary company? 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 signi cant impact on the world around them The key point... We might be partial to California-based or technology-based companies because we’re more familiar with them To minimize individual bias, therefore, we elected to survey chief executive o cers at leading corporations from a wide range of sizes, industries, types, and geographical locations and ask them to help us create the list of visionary companies to study We believed that CEOs, given their unique... generations of active leaders Pause for a moment and compose your own mental list of visionary companies; try to think of five to ten organizations that meet the following criteria: • Premier institution in its industry • Widely admired by knowledgeable businesspeople • Made an indelible imprint on the world in which we live • Had multiple generations of chief executives • Been through multiple product... everything except that core People cannot reliably predict where they are going and how their lives will unfold, especially in today’s unpredictable world Those who built the visionary companies wisely understood that it is better to understand who you are than where you are going—for where you are going will almost certainly change It is a lesson as relevant to our individual lives as to aspiring visionary... than on hitting a market just right with a visionary product idea and riding the growth curve of an attractive product life cycle And instead of concentrating on acquiring the individual personality traits of visionary leadership, they take an architectural approach and concentrate on building the organizational traits of visionary companies The primary output of their e orts is not the tangible implementation... successful companies exist first and foremost to maximize profits Reality: Contrary to business school doctrine, “maximizing shareholder wealth” or “pro t maximization” has not been the dominant driving force or primary objective through the history of the visionary companies Visionary companies pursue a cluster of objectives, of which making money is only one—and not necessarily the primary one Yes,... leadership, visionary products, visionary market insights, or inspiring vision statements 3M, we decided, could best be described as a visionary company And thus we began the extensive research project on which this book is based In a nutshell, we had two primary objectives for the research project: 1 To identify the underlying characteristics and dynamics common to highly visionary companies (and that distinguish . leader, including himself. He made the shift from being a social visionary to building an organization with an enduring social purpose—the shift from being a time-teller to being a clock-builder research initiative designed to replicate the Built to Last analysis and systematically test the ideas in Europe, Jerry (in conjunction with OCC, a European consulting rm) has identied eighteen. substantial. This is a book about visionary companies. What is a visionary company? Visionary companies are premier institutions—the crown jewels—in their industries, widely admired by their peers