Review: Built to to Last by Jim Collins and Jerry I Porras
Mike Hurley
Built to last by Jim Collins and Jerry I. Porras
Genre: Business
Media : Hardcover Paper
Publisher: Collins (2004)
Link: CLICK HERE
Mike’s Bookmark rating: (4.6 out of 5)
Check out www.bookreviewproject.com. This project is my study into the critical business of learning EVERY DAY! So, here are the corporate realities and economics of this project. I am a consultant and rent my brain out by the hour (insert your favorite consultant joke here). As CIO (Chief Inventory Officer), I am in charge of continually increasing the inventory of available ideas I have for rent and sale. Therefore, the faster I can read, the faster I learn, the more value my ideas have, the more inventory I have. PERIOD! What’s a book worth to me and my clients? A whole lot more than it sells for on Amazon.com. When was the last time you invested in your intellectual inventory by reading? Here’s a sure thing when it comes to investing: Invest in your BRAIN! … Today.
Pre-ramble: 08/01/06 – Fargo Confidential: Vol. 1 – Babbs in the morning
I knew where it was going when I first saw her and she smiled. I simply stood there staring deeply at her. My mind swung back a few moments earlier when I opened the door. The déjà vu was intense as I recalled her smell. It drew me back to a Seattle coffee shop in the Public Market. Her voiced snapped me out of the trance and I immediately blushed, feeling foolish. She smiled again, “I’ve never seen you here before. What can I get you?” I smiled. “Get me something sexy.” She raised one flirtatious eyebrow “Sexy, huh? Hmmm. Let’s see… something French then. How ‘bout a Café Au Lait?”. My turn to smile. “I have a thing for thin, dark Italians. How about a chocolate biscotti as well?” She laughed and turned to fire up the grinder.
Book Haiku: Built to Last
Clock Builder or not
Ideology drives all
Big, Audacious Book
In a nutshell:
What makes a great company tick. Not the new great companies, but the old 100+ year old industry leaders who have been that way for decades. Collins and Porras dissect the traits that make great companies great by comparing them to other similar companies and identifying the critical attributes that make companies like Proctor and Gamble, IBM and GE truly great American enterprises.
Book Summary:
Collins wrote my favorite business book of all time, Good to Great (Review: http://www.bookreviewproject.com/2003Reviews/collins_review.htm). This is the predecessor to that tome. It is hard to compare, but I am going to try anyway. Collins claims that these two books work in concert. Good to Great shows the attributes of how to become a great company. Built to Last talks about how to keep your company great over several generations. I agree with this assessment.
This is an excellent book. Combined with Good to Great paints a clear picture on what separates the good from the also-rans. Both should be required for all MBA students as well as anyone paying more than lip-service to Vision, Mission and Values.
Killer idea:
BHAGs (Big Hairy Audacious Goals) – BHAGs set an incredibly aggressive goal that drives progressive change. What’s your BHAG?
Zen Applicability:
Forget about business for just a moment. How do you make the “good life” the “UNIQUELY GREAT!” life? Better yet, what needs to happen to your life to create the mechanisms to ensure that you sustain this greatness every day. This section is not intended to provide answers, but I am going to break that rule. The answer is habits. Want a great life? Create GREAT habits! Habitually choose things that will be self-greatness reinforcing. If not, jettison them… today.
What I am listening to:
The Greatest Twenty Eight – Chuck Berry. There are so many unpolished two minute gems in this bunch that it has been hard for me to put it down. I can’t listen to Johnny B Goode without seeing Michael J. Fox in Back to the Future, but other than that it harks to another style and another day. Classic. Check it out HERE.
NOW GO READ SOMETHING!
Mike