Built to Last
by Jim Collins
Preserve the core and stimulate progress.
Why read it
Why do a handful of companies thrive for a century or more while their rivals fade, and what, exactly, separates the enduring great from the merely successful?
Collins and Porras compare eighteen visionary companies against close competitors to find what made the long-term winners different, arguing it was rarely a charismatic leader or a single brilliant idea. The answer lies in building an enduring organization guided by core values and an audacious sense of purpose.
Published in 1994 and based on a six-year Stanford research project, it became a business classic and long-running bestseller. It laid groundwork for Collins's later book Good to Great.
- 01
Clock building, not time telling
The takeaway is to build an organization that outlasts any single leader or product.
- 02
Preserve core, stimulate progress
Enduring companies hold fixed core values while relentlessly changing everything else.
- 03
BHAGs
Big Hairy Audacious Goals galvanize a company toward long-horizon ambition.
- 04
Cult-like cultures
Visionary firms build strong, values-driven cultures that fit the right people tightly.
The contrast between Hewlett-Packard and Texas Instruments, showing how the HP Way built durability.
Walt Disney's and Boeing's audacious goals, from Disneyland to betting the company on the 747.
