Build to Last Successful Habits of Visionary Companies Mini Review (by Jim Collins)

Salams all:

I am trying to get back to blogging, iA. The hope is that I can share some of the concepts and ideas that I am reading about in a more consistent manner.

So, I picked up a book I started a while back, Build to Last, by Jim Collins. Jim Collins and a team of researchers performed research of a visionary companies and distilled their findings in this book.
Visionary companies were selected through a CEO survey and typically outperformed the market by 15 X and outperformed comparison companies by 6x

In chapter 1, Collins defuses 12 misconceptions on the visionary company habits:

It takes a great idea to start a company
Visionary companies require great and charismatic visionary leaders
The most successful companies exist first and first foremost to maximize profits
Visionary companies share a common subset of "correct" core values
The only constant is change
Blue-chip companies play it safe
Visionary companies are great place to work, for everyone
Highly successful companies make their best moves by brilliant and complex strategic planning.
Companies should hire outside CEOs to stimulate fundamental change
The most successful companies focus primarily on beating the competition
You can't have your cake and eat it too
Companies become visionary primarily through "vision statements"


Two things that stuck with me from the 1st chapter were that visionary companies were committed to "Big Hairy Audacious Goals" (BHAG) and that they were primarily focused beating themselves (rather than competition).

Anyhow, hope I can be consistent with these posts. iA.