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Summary: Insights founded on solid ground
Review: Big hairy audacious goals! BHAG has finally become a buzz-word in business today. Slywotsky, Gates and other all use it now. Built to last is one of those business books founded on solid research. I'm particularly impressed with their research methodology and choices of control groups. Insights are hard to apply though in the real world. Still, great reading for managers. The other comparable book I have read is The PIMS Principle.
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Summary: Principles that will make better organizations and people
Review: The book talks about visionary companies having unchanging core ideology on the inside and changing operating practices on the outside. Only companies having both these qualities are capable of becoming successful companies. Whether you are an entrepreneur or a consultant or a stock investor, there is a great lesson for all. A must-read book with inside-out approach to building great organisations. Ashok Atluri
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Summary: Excellent nuts and bolts summary of strategic planning.
Review: Excellent summary of the strategic planning efforts of 20 Fortune 500 companies. The strategic plans of these "visionary" companies are compared to the strategic efforts of twenty successful companies, but clearly not visionary companies. Real nuts and bolts look; useful to managers at all levels in both profit and non-profit organizations. More concerned with helping the reader establish guidelines and processes for creating a visionary company. Less concerned with abstract theory and scholastic wordsmithing. This book has been extrememly helpful to me in my work as planning officer at a small Ohio college. Great introduction to the importance of developing planning processes.
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Summary: A useful tool for business and life.
Review: Collins and Porras did their homework. This was a great book, well organized, and they resisted most of the temptations to write as academics. This book's value will last into the Knowledge Age.
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Summary: Shattered Myths-- Substituted Realities
Review: This wonderful book shatters the widely held myths about the success secrets of great companies.It substitutes the myths with the real life facts of enduring companies. The methodology followed to arrive at various conclusions in writing the book is really innovative. The idea of selecting a comparison group of companies (control group) gives more validity to the authors conclusions.The concept that visionary companies does not require charismatic leaders;gives a sigh of releif to many great leaders who are pragmatic but lack the charisma.The concept that a great company need not be conceived by a great idea gives relief to aspiring entrepreneurs who are wondering where they can start thier work.The notion of profit maximization was mockered to the point; where no thinking entrepreneur can dare to imitate it anymore. It goes to prove the great saying a doctor who's hand is on the purse of the patient; but not on the pulse-can neither earn money nor satisfy the patient.The emphasis on core values indicates the principle centeredness of the visionary companies in an age of quick buck and sheer opportunism.The explanation of the role played by the darwinian dynamics in the developemental process and growth of a company is commendable. It takes the management theory another step ahead in our times.Self-propelled competition is another eye opening idea.To be centered around the notion of 'OR' instead of the realistic approach of being oriented around the 'AND' takes the book closer to the Taoist dialectical view of the world.Visionary companies centering around beliefs and core ideology rather than around policies,practices, and goals is an important observation.The concept of 'Big hairy audacious goals' shows the pragmatism of authors in their approach to practical realities of the business.Ultimately the reader of the book is left with shattered myths, and battered illusions about successful business. D.Papa Rao
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Summary: Excellent book. Original point of view and easy to read!
Review: I read this remarkable book by the first time in 1996 and since then I have used it as a point of reference in my job. It would be very interesting to repeat the study Mr. Porras and Mr. Collins describe in their book, but now with latin-american companies. What kind of surprises would they discover?
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Summary: Insightful book
Review: This book was a required reading for my managemnt class and it's the first time i have ever read a "textbook" from cover to cover and completed it before the class ended. A must read for every working professional.
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Summary: Oustanding
Review: Yes, great case study of what it takes to be a cut above the rest. In fact I just took a Sr. Level Management Course and this was the text for the class. In depth, logical look at companies that are strategic in their thinking. I will keep this textbook!
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Summary: SUCCESSION PLANNING: FROM INSIDE OR OUTSIDE YR. OWN COMPANY?
Review: A great book that provides unbelievable benefits. For instance it can be very beneficial for the great number of enterpreneurial companies in Italy who are facing the need of designing the succession plan and identify the next CEO. Moreover a great contribution to own reflection is the final aim a company, who wants to further develop and grow, should have: to preserve the core! This helps the company founder or the CEO to develop a longer and longer term view: across a number of generations!
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Summary: The best ever written book about enterprises success
Review: When one comes to analyse the success of a company the timeline is a must, we need companies that last long enough to generate wealth to the community it is in. This book presents the results of a magnific research on how this kind of companies are runned. The directions and hints presented should be part of the everyday life of any manager (of all levels) who intend to really make his/her business grow and last. We recommend to read the paperback edition which has a new chapter that summarizes the whole idea of the book.
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