Book Review: Built to Last

“Built to last” by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras is about identifying patterns based on qualitative and quantitative research on existence of legendary organizations. Jim Collins in particular has been associated with this kind of research for more than two decades. He has written some unforgettable HBR articles like “Level 5 leadership”, “Built to Flip” and best seller books like “Good to Great” which consisted of research on more than 1400 companies. Phew!!! More on Jim Collins: www.jimcollins.com

Patters consist of financial data, vision statements, and business strategies of the companies for the past 100 years. As the name suggests Authors have tried to find out why some companies are ageless and seem to exist forever?

The most fascinating aspect of this book is the depth of the qualitative research. Mission, vision statements, strategies and philosophies of the companies like Morris Philip (Marlboro), Boeing, and HP have been studied in depth and essence has been brought out in true sense. Authors have tried to filter the values with will remain intact even after 100 years of existence of company, audacious goals which company will strive to achieve for many years (Wal-Mart target of $125 billion revenue), cult cultures which run deep inside the organisations (free cigarette boxes with pay cheque to Morris Philip employee), actions consistent with vision statements and core values, band of leaders eligible as successors (GE) and many more insights.

A diligent comparative study backed by the huge research effort has been done to bring out in light the gravity of differences between legendary and not so legendary companies.

Sometimes while going through this research work it seems as if you are reading some boring history book full of facts and qualitative data. So you need to be patient enough. It’s more imperative to grasp underlying message than the details of the example given.

I think this book will particularly be helpful to budding entrepreneurs who want to build companies to last forever and not to flip.