Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies

Rating:
Summary: Take your company beyond basic product development
Review: To make a long review short - this is a great book. But reading it 6 years after it was first published makes it even more interesting. Many of the companies described in the book (Boeing) has had a hard struggle since then.
As a former COO and now as an entreprenuer, the book is relevant and well written. It shares some amazing insight about the companies it evaluates and it brings on som very interesting conclutions. Being in sales I began shortly after reading this book to change my stock portfolio into companies that was run based on the same leadership mantras as the book describes. It is hard to get beyond the marketing story telling of such companies - but fact is my portfolio has never been better since I changed my investing paradigm. This review is not about investing - but trying to dig out the the conclutions of this book from the real world companies of today is truly interesting. I love it - I hope the visionaries will continously beat the pragmatists.

Rating:
Summary: Should be required for all levels
Review: Years ago, my boss, hiring many of as refugees from another company, opened the doors on his own business. The first thing I remember his doing was giving me a copy of this book so that I would know how he wanted to approach management.

I have since moved on to become a college English instructor, so some might wonder what I was doing in what was, effectively, a management role. What this book illustrates, however, is that managers don't make companies work, worker-centered policies do.

Now, years on, that company has become part of something much larger and quite successful. Nonetheless, I still apply many of the ideas expressed in this book in the way I interact with my students.