Built to Last : Successful Habits of Visionary Companies
Author: Jim Collins, Jerry I. Porras
List Price: $17.95
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ISBN: 0060516402
Publisher: HarperBusiness (20 August, 2002)
Sales Rank: 169
Average Customer Rating: 4.64 out of 5
Customer Reviews
Rating: 5 out of 5
Unprecedented, Compelling, Well-Researched
"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: 5 out of 5
Read this along with Good To Great
This book will show you how to take your business from just average to great but even more importantly, make it last. Built to Last is a must read for all business people. Read this right along with Good To Great and Double Digit Growth.Take your company to unequaled growth and leave a legacy.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Nonfiction/documentary work
If You are tired of reading management books that are some fictions about how to build great company, that contain a lot of fancy drawings with bubbles, boxes and lines, bloated with buzzwords, but that has very weak/unclear/fuzzy link with the practice, then this book is for You. These guys (authors) have made a capacious 6 year methodical study project to find out why the top-performing companies in long-term perspective (long-term means they are looking at companies, not younger than about 50 years, which have been top-performes during most of their life-time) have succeeded. The study have revealed a lot of surprising facts (for example these results very clearly contradict some far-spread imaginations about good leadership).Of course the authors still create some buzzwords and stuff, but these are only to facilitate telling the story of research results. I love easy to read nonfiction books with very strong and explicit link to real world practice, and this book is on top of them.
If You are acting in software development industry and are also interested in more short-term (less than 50 to 100 years of) management success, then You might want to read Detlev J. Hoch et al, "Secrets of Software Success" too -- the same review applies to it (except study project lasted for 4 years).
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