Built to Last

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Find out what makes the truly exceptional companies different from other companies. ""Built to Last" . . . is one of the most eye-opening business studies since "In Search of Excellence."--"USA Today."

Publisher Comments:

HarperBusiness Essentials Note from Jim Collins and Jerry Porras,

authors of "Built to Last" As we sat down to write this author's note for the HarperBusiness Essentials edition, "Built to Last" celebrated its sixth year on the Business Week bestseller list. Far beyond what we would have dared to imagine, "Built to Last" has lived up to its own name.

Ironically, we can claim no credit for the title. Creativity often sprouts from frustration, and our editors in 1994 were frustrated in the extreme. We had inserted a clause into our publishing contract that gave us final right of approval, and as the publication date neared, we just kept vetoing titles. In all, something on the order of 127 different options fell by the wayside, from "You are the Competition" to "Research Results on Visionary Companies."

The situation finally escalated to the executive editor for HarperCollins, who went home for the weekend and returned on Monday morning with an idea. "Here," he said, throwing a three by five note card on our editor's desk, "see if they'll go for this." On it he'd written the simple phrase "Built to Last."

And we had our title.

In retrospect, "Built to Last" is a great title, but it is also the wrong title. Not from a marketing standpoint (don't get us wrong, we'd still keep it), but from the standpoint of what this book is really all about. "Built to Last," it turns out, is not fundamentally about building to last. It is about building something that is worthy of lasting — about building a company of such intrinsic excellence that the world would lose something important if that organization ceased to exist. Implicit on every page is a simple question: Why on Earthwould you settle for creating something mediocre that does little more than make money, when you can create something outstanding that makes a lasting contribution as well? And in the end, as the evidence from our research showed, those who make a lasting contribution make more money over the long run anyway.

If we were rewriting "Built to Last" today, we would not overturn any of the basic concepts; they are timeless principles. We certainly know more about great companies than we did in 1994, and there is certainly much that we could add, but our faith in the fundamental findings has not faded. Indeed, we are more convinced than ever that building an enduring great company — one that is truly worthy of lasting — is a noble cause.

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　Jim Collins and Jerry Porras

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　March 31, 2002

Synopsis:

Drawing upon a six-year research project at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business, James C. Collins and Jerry I. Porras took eighteen truly exceptional and long-lasting companies and studied each 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 the comparison companies and what were the common practices these enduringly great companies followed throughout their history?"

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 21st century and beyond.

From Amazon.com

Built to Last became an instant business classic. This audio abridgement is read by the authors, who alternate chapters. Collins is a bit breathlessly enthusiastic, but clear and interesting; Porras, unfortunately, is poorly inflected and wooden. They set out to determine what's special about "visionary" companies--the Disneys, Wal-Marts, and Mercks, companies at the very top of their game that have demonstrated longevity and great brand image. The authors compare 18 "visionary" picks to a control group of "successful-but-second-rank" companies. Thus Disney is compared to Columbia Pictures, Ford to GM, and so on.

A central myth, according to the authors, is that visionary companies start with a great product and are pushed into the future by charismatic leaders. Usually false, Collins and Porras find. Much more important, and a much more telling line of demarcation between a wild success like 3M and an also-ran like Norton, is flexibility. 3M had no master plan, little structure, and no prima donnas. Instead it had an atmosphere in which bright people were not afraid to "try a lot of stuff and keep what works."

If you listen to this audiocassette on your daily commute, you may discover whether you are headed to a "visionary" place of work--and, if so, whether you are the kind of employee who fits your employer's vision. (Running time: two hours, two cassettes) --Richard Farr

From 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, Univ. of Evansville Lib., Ind.

Book Dimension

Height (mm) 204 　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 Width (mm) 134

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