Built To Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies - Hardcover

To become visionary, claim the authors of this book, firms need two things: a guiding philosophy and a challenging mission, or goal. They have interviewed the leaders and senior managers of 18 of the USA's most successful companies, including Boeing, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, as well as Sony in Japan, and examined just what makes them tick and how it is that they have outdistanced their competitors. The book forms a blueprint for success for companies around the world, who can learn valuable secrets of just how to succeed in today's competitive climate without compromising the ideals with which they were founded.

This volume reveals the findings of the authors' five-year research project into 18 long-lasting companies. Each of the companies have an average age of 100 years and have outperformed the stock market by a factor of 15 since 1926, and are studied in direct comparison with one of their main competitors. The text examines the companies from their beginning until the present day: as start-ups, medium-sized companies and large corporations. The outcome of this investigation was that many traditional beliefs and concepts were shattered, principally the myth that the success of a company depends on the leadership of people with rare and mysterious qualities that cannot be learned by others.