Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies (Harper Business Essentials)

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 counter-examples--in fact, the majority of the "visionary" companies, including giants such as 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 "ideologically 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

The most important lesson of this book is to create lasting ways of managing your business successfully that will outlive the skills and perspective of any one person, no matter how talented.

The book is fun to read. I liked the way the ideas were described: "Big, hairy, audacious goals" is a fun concept just from the title.

One of the most useful ideas is that we need to hold conflicting ideas in our minds, such as "do more" and "spend less". English often suggests that conflicts exist in what can be done that do not really exist in practice.

This book is outstanding for "telling it like it is". Of particular interest to investors will be the stock-price charts showing how valuable these lessons are for public companies and their shareholders.

The work is a little dated in that it is looking at lessons that were the causes of success decades ago. Also, the book is most relevant to new companies rather than established ones.

None of the companies profiled here ended up being an important source of busines model innovation in the 21st century, so you'll have to find that information from more recent research.


Collins J & Porras J, (1997), Built to Last   March 31, 2004
 4 out of 5 found this review helpful

Collins J & Porras J, (1997), Built to Last

The book is very much a research book with a view to capture why these visionary organisations are successful. At least 114 pages are devoted to research information or methodology, pages 1 - 21 and 240 - 333.

Page 19 - This must be one of the very first books to examine the entire organisations history for all 36 organisations. The average life span being 96 years, over 60,000 - 100,000 pages of documents examined, over 100 books read and so much more were taken into account when researching Built to Last during a 6-year period.

Page 3 - The book examines the 18 most successful / visionary organisations that have been identified through fellow CEO / executives from research undertaken based on the: Fortune 500 industrial companies, Fortune 500 service companies, Inc. 500 private companies and Inc. 100 public companies - Page 13.

Page 13 - The next stage was to find organisations within the same industry to compare on a like for like basis, to help understand why these visionary organisations are what they have become today, a "super organisation". In total, the book examines 36 organisations.

Page 27 - Not all the visionary organisation were initially successful during their entrepreneur period (results on page 274), in fact out of the 18 visionary organisations only 3 were more successful than their comparisons; Johnson & Johnson, Ford, GE (Page 22). This means 10 comparisons organisations were more successful than the visionary organisation. Leaving 5 organisations being indistinguishable - probably due to lack of information, see page 254.

Page 91 - Big Hairy Audacious Goals (BHAG) - To have audacious goals (clearly understood by all) that seem beyond achievement, but these should correspond with the organisations core purpose - examples can be viewed on Page 113. The BHAG are used to stimulate progress, i.e. GE - To become #1 or #2 in every market we serve.....", Sony - "To change the image around the world of Japanese products as poor in quality"

Page 140 - Try A lot of Stuff & Keep What Works - Johnson & Johnson were originally selling medical plasters until a complaint was received when the plasters being used caused irritation. Research was done by J & J and the baby talc was born as a separate product. But 3M is the really example of the visionary organisation in this chapter.

Page 140 - The use of Darwin theory of evolution has been applied as a way to describe these visionary organisations. The 3M evolutionary tree as seen on page 154 is an example. 3M started as a mining company than went into sandpaper / grinding wheels. From here set up a research lab to experiment and test new ideas / products.

Page 169 - Home Grown Management - Visionary organisations promote within the organisation into management positions. Only two visionary organisations (Philip Morris and Walt Disney) compared with 13 comparison organisations have used outsiders in a CEO role in a period between 1808 to 1992 - Page 174

Interesting Quotes -

Don Petersen, Former CEO, Ford, 1994 - "Putting profits after people and products was magical at Ford" - Page 46.

John Young, HP Chief executive 1976 - 1992 -"Maximising shareholder wealth has always been way down the list...........There is a symmetry of logic in this. If we provide real satisfaction to real customers - we will be profitable" - Page 57

The Book in General

The core aspect of the book is to understand the core values and core purposes, the combination of these two factors suggest how these visionary organisations have become successful. These visionary organisations share the same common thoughts / concepts throughout their history, a good example of this is Merick's - they first coined the term core value in 1935 (Page 47) and in 1991 the present managers are still singing the same tune 65 years later. Marriott can be seen as an example of consistency, J Marriott Snr. in 1965 stated three statements, in 1984 J Marriott Jnr. also stated three statements not too dissimilar to those 19 years earlier.

Page 254 - One negative aspect of the books is the biased towards US orientated organisations, out of the 36 organisations only two were non-US, Sony & Kenwood. The authors do acknowledge the quality and quantity of the information gained could distort the over results which the book is based upon.

Other Issues

I would conclude this book is certainly interesting and could foresee further research undertaken on this subject area. I would like to see what the difference is between these 18 visionary organisations compared with 18 "modern-day equivalent" visionary organisations from the same industries using global organisations (not just the US orientated organisations), such as Microsoft, Virgin, Easy Jet or Tesco.

The authors could test their evidence / views gained from the research of the 18 visionary organisations and determine if the "modern-day equivalents" will still be existing 96 yrs later and be able to call themselves a "super company" as demonstrated by these 18 organisations.

Overall, An excellent book. A recommended read if you want to know if your organisation shares similar characteristics to these 18 visionary organisations.


enjoyed listening   September 19, 2003
 1 out of 3 found this review helpful

I am referring to the audio tape version of the book which i enjoyed a lot. Apparently James C. Collins, Jerry I. Porras did a very long analytical research before they strarted. You learn new things and you learn new ways of looking into things. You discover why visionary companies stay forever. Money seems to be everything in our lives and it is the reason for these companies' existence however it is not what drives these visionary compnaies. I hope to read the book because i feel that i missed a lot in the tape. The authors explain themselves in a very simple way. they summarize their ideas and findings in points and then they explain each of them thoroughly. they show you comparisons among these companies and among companies that are very strong and known but not visionary.


One of the few business books with a lifespan   July 23, 2003
 5 out of 5 found this review helpful

This is a business book that has "legs". Contains some classic concepts (BHAGs...) and explodes some great myths. A book to return to over time, that is well researched and based on something a lot more more solid that the authors egos. Recommended for even the most jaded biz book reader.


Vision = Core Ideology + Envisioned Future   November 30, 2002
 23 out of 26 found this review helpful

James Collins is a management researcher from Boulder (Colorado, USA) and Jerry Porras is a professor of organizational behavior and change at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. This book is really split up into three parts: (1) An introduction into the research.; (2) The core ideology of visionary companies.; (3) The habits of visionary companies; (4) Methods for implementation.

The authors explain their research methods of this six-year research project into visionary companies. "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 significant impact on the world around them." The authors used the term 'visionary', rather than just 'successful' or 'enduring', to reflect the fact they have distinguished themselves as a very special and elite breed of institutions. In order to compose these visionary companies the authors started with a set of criteria which those companies had to meet: (1) Premier institution in its industry; (2) widely admired by knowledgeable businesspeople; (3) made an indelible imprint on the world in which we live; (4) had multiple generations of chief executives; (5) been through multiple product (or service) life cycles; (6) founded before 1950. With these criteria in mind the authors select 18 visionary companies from a wide range of industries, plus 18 comparison companies (which are not weak or bad companies either).

So what do these visionary companies have in common? They have core ideologies consisting of more than a bunch of nice-sounding platitudes. A visionary company's core ideology consists of core values ("The organization's essential and enduring tenets") and purpose ("The organization's fundamental reasons for existence beyond just making money"). But the authors comment that ocre ideology alone cannot make a visionary company. Ultimately, a visionary company is build up from a core ideology complemented with a drive for progress and a preservation of the core complemented with a stimulation for progress.

The authors then turn their attention to the specific methods of preserving the core and stimulating progress that distinguishes visionary companies from the comparison companies. They split these methods up into: (1) Big hairy audaciou goals (BHAGs) ("Commitment to challenging, audicious goals and projects toward which a visionary company channels its efforts."); (2) Cult-like cultures ("Great places to work only for those who buy in to the core ideology; those who don't fit the ideology are ejected like a virus (preserves the core)."); (3)Try a lot of stuff and keep what works ("High levels of action and experimentation that produce new and unexpected paths of progress and enables visionary companies to mimic the biological evolution of specias (stimulates progress)."); (4) Home-grown management ("Promotion from within, bringing to senior levels only those who've spent significant time steeped in the coe ideology of the company (preserves the core)."); and (5) Good enough never is ("A continual process of relentless self-improvement with the aim of doing better and better, forever into the future (stimulate progress).")

In the final chapters the authors provide a summary of the book, which they refer to as the vision framework: Articulating a vision = core ideology (core values and core purpose) + envisioned future (10 to 30 year BHAG and vivid descriptions). There are also some tools to create all these items in this framework. In this 3rd edition there is also 'a message for the new economy' in which the authors conclude that the dot-com craze is based on 'Built to Flip' and not 'Built to Last' ideas. They provide some questions for to check whether your organization is built to last or built to flip. This chapter is a waste paper.

I honestly cannot believe that I read this book just a month after I read Tom Peters and Robert H. Waterman's 'In Search of Excellence' (1982). They have so much in common, it is uncanny - habits, example companies, research methods, etc. I must admit that I prefer Peters and Waterman's book better, but I can understand if readers do not feel that way. Nevertheless, this is a good book into the habits of successful companies, although the habits are somewhat 'soft', and difficult to implement in existing companies. The biggest criticism McKinsey & Co had on this book: "We really love 'Built to Last' here, but unfortunately it's useless. ... all the companies in 'Built to Last' were always great. They were never average. But that's most of the world." As an reply to this criticism Collins has recently written 'Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap ... and Others Don't' (2001). My greatest criticism on this book is the amount of repetition and therefore I recommend others to go for the e-articles 'Build Your Company's Vision' and 'Turning Goals into Results', both by the authors of this book. I also recommend Jim Collins' latest article 'Level 5 Leadership' (2001) which is based on his latest book 'Good to Great'. This book is written in simple US-English.