Loved it.

Great book! It will help and will change your mindset of how successful companies works.

Extraordinario libro.

Considero que es obligatorio para cualquier persona que esté construyendo una empresa.

Obviamente es útil para cualquier empresario, pero aquellos emprendedores que quieran aprender de primera mano cómo las compañías visionarias hicieron para llegar donde están necesiten vivir esta experiencia.

-Core Values.
-Propósito defendido.
-Cultura empresarial.
-Estimular el progreso.
-Aceptar la genialidad del "Y".

Son algunas claves que empresas como 3M, Sony y Disney han aplicado a lo largo de su historia.

El libro está repleto de ejemplos y casos de estudio que puedes aplicar en cualquier momento.

Una verdadera guía de cómo construir una compañía visionaria.

Used to know the author and read this book years ago. But his methodology and assumptions are questionable.

Critique from Daniel Kahneman, author of "Thinking, Fast and Slow"

https://delanceyplace.com/view-archiv...

It's easy to connect the dots backwards, as Steve Jobs once put it. Hindsight does not equal foresight.

Luck and timing matter far more than many want to admit.

For example, there were several personal computers that were superior to the IBM/MS version, but they were too early, not a market for them yet, so they ended up in the historical dustbin.

So far in business there are three highly respected books written about research performed on businesses and what makes them successful. The first would be In Search of Excellence. The second would be Built to Last and, finally, Good to Great.
Built to last compares companies within the same industry to see what makes one “visionary” and the other not so visionary. It looks at several different industries this way. The book acknowledges that there may be some flaws with its research but, in the end, the book gives the reader some ideas about what might make a company “Built to Last.”

The book gives us some basic history of different companies and tells us some of what made different CEOS tick. It is worth reading for just that information alone. It also makes some observations about what the more successful, in terms of being “Visionary,” companies have in common with each other.

Any aspiring CEO should be familiar with this study and this book. It provides some great fodder for thought. It also gives one a foundation from which a company which is built to last can be built.

I checked this book out from the Wharton County Library through their Inter-Library Loan (ILL) service. Support your local library.

"The builders of visionary companies tend to be simple, some might even say simplistic, in their approaches to business. Yet simple does not mean easy."

This book is an ideal companion to Good to Great. Despite being written first, I would definitely read it after. Both are critical reading for managers and executives. They push you to think deeply about your team or company culture and brainstorm the best ways to improve it. I think Good to Great provided much more practical, actionable advice, while this was more of a reiteration of core concepts with research across longer periods of time. Useful, but not game-changing as compared to the follow-up.

One thing I appreciated about the particular edition I listened to was that it was recorded after Good to Great was published, so Jim Collins made an effort to point out where the concepts in the two intersect and reinforce each other. However, I would still contend if you're only going to read one Good to Great is the gold standard.

This book has a lot of great, actionable information for business leaders across any industry - particularly those businesses that are still in their infancy. The book is obviously well researched and the research and case studies can become a bit monotonous to get through after a while, but they do help provide a backbone of knowledge that brings the material to life in practical, realistic ways. It's tempting to copy direct strategies from the visionary companies featured in the book in order to build your own visionary company, but I'm sure that misses the point, and I found taking detailed notes throughout of big picture ideas (and reading them after each chapter) helped me from getting too lost in the details of the case studies and companies highlighted.

Uno mas de la lista (los teóricamente recomendados por Jeff Bezos).
Me gustó el concepto, me parece un buen análisis "forense", y me parece que su gran aportación de valo, al menos para mí, es que nos ayuda a desmitificar el emprendimiento, que creo que en muchísimos casos resulta una imagen peligrosa y falaz.

A “sequel” to Jim Collins’ latest “Good to Great” book. In contrast to “Good to Great”, this book reads more similarly to a textbook in its earlier chapters than a story. A “good” complement to the overall work in this two-book series, but not quite “great”.

Me encontré este libro en la calle, descartado junto a un contenedor de basura. Ya leí muchos de este estilo (incluyendo Good to great de unos de los autores) pero le di una oportunidad por la serendipia. La traducción al español es poco feliz (probablemente culpa de priorizar el gancho comercial por sobre la fidelidad al original). Primero tergiversa el sentido del título. Build to last que encapsula la visión inicial de los fundadores y no simplemente el resultado. Y después el subtítulo Successful habits of visionary companies se malinterpreta como n  triunfadorasn cuando en el mismo libro diferencia entre una cosa y la otra.

El libro es el resultado de seis años de investigación, por lo que tuvo que haber empezado en 1989. Entrevistaron, consultaron archiveros, pidieron todo tipo de documentación a las empresas. En algunos casos llegan a un nivel de profundidad que me sorprendió como calcular cuánto aportó en términos económicos cada presidente de GE para desmitificar la figura de Jack Welch. Junto con él rompen el mito de los líderes carismáticos, de la idea revolucionaria y otros lugares comunes. Intentan encontrar patrones, hábitos como la forma de seleccionar, de capacitar, de comunicar, de pasar la posta entre presidentes para intentar distinguir a quienes lo hacen con mayor éxito en el largo plazo. Muchas veces este tipo de análisis son acusados del sesgo a la hora de seleccionar las empresas o recortes en el análisis. Los autores mismos hacia el final dejan la advertencia que correlación no es causalidad y ponen en juicio sus propias conclusiones, lo que me parece honesto. Una recomendación saludable es suspender que lo estás leyendo desde el futuro para creer que ciertas compañías todavía existen, son relevantes o que los autores consideren a IBM como innovadora es algo razonable.

El mundo de la empresa cambia mucho pero a su vez es bastante constante en ciertas variables. Le pregunté a ChatGPT que me dijera qué tal fue el desempeño de las compa��ías visionarias versus las compañías de compañías de comparación treinta años después de la publicación del libro. La conclusión a la que arribó fue que siguieron manteniéndose por delante así que los principios detectados por los autores parecen seguir vigentes. También le pregunté cuáles serían las compañías visionarias y de comparación hoy y mencionó a Apple vs. Samsung, Amazon vs. Walmart, Tesla vs. General Motors, Nvidia vs. Intel, Netflix vs. Disney+, entre otras (curiosamente IBM pasó del otro lado, ahora es Microsoft su contracara visionaria).

En resumen, es una buena y simpática lectura para quien quiere entender el mundo de las empresas, la historia de las corporaciones e incluso hasta puede tener una utilidad para quien va a invertir en la bolsa para sumar a su kit de investigación de buenas empresas las características que mencionan los autores.

Algunas frases interesantes:
“El que vaya a trabajar con una compañía visionaria, o bien concuerda y prospera (...) o bien se libran de él como de un virus. No hay término medio. Es casi como un culto.”
“La mayor creación de Walt Disney fue Walt Disney [la compañía]." (Richard Schickel)
“Significa pasar menos tiempo dando la hora y más tiempo construyendo el reloj.”
“Tiranía de la disyuntiva: el punto de vista racional que no acepta la paradoja, que no puede vivir con dos fuerzas o ideas aparentemente contradictorias al mismo tiempo.”
“Una manera eficaz de llegar al propósito es formular esta pregunta: ¿por qué no cerrar esta organización, liquidar, vender los activos?”
“La única vaca sagrada en una organización debe ser su filosofía básica de hacer negocios.” (Thomas J. Watson)
“Las compañías visionarias se fijan metas grandes y audaces -MEGAS- (...) Una MEGA compromete a la gente (...) es tangible, da energía, es muy enfocada. Todos la entienden.”
“Reglas de Nordstrom: Regla #1: Aplica su buen juicio en todas las situaciones. No habrá más reglas.”
“Proceso de evolución: echar ramas y podar.”
“La mayoría de las herramientas que se enseñan en los cursos sobre estrategia corporativa no explican en absoluto cómo adquirió la compañía su ventaja competitiva estratégica.”
“Los planes detallados suelen fallar porque las circunstancias inevitablemente varían (Karl von Clausewitz)
“Una compañía visionaria tolera los errores, pero no los pecados.”
“Multiplicarse, variar, dejar que vivan los más fuertes y mueran los más débiles.” (Darwin)
“Eisner resultó más Walt que Walt.”

The book can get monotonous at times. It is a comparison of what worked for companies that have stayed relevant and excelled for multiple decades, compared to those that ended up as a distant 2nd in the same market segment. There are some obvious and idealistic things that you get reminded of, which can be useful for a leader at any level when put to practice. Give it a quick read and take notes/go deep into points that resonate.

This is the BEST book I read in June 2021.

If you are a business owner or a leader within an organization, you MUST read this book.

If you want to build a visionary organization, this is the book for you.

The book will completely change the way you think about the culture, structure, and many other important components of your business.

Flow: 5/5
Actionability: 5/5
Mindset: 5/5

Some of My Highlights:

"There are many ways to measure the success of a book, but for us the quality of our readership stands at the top of the list."

"Myth 7: Visionary companies are great places to work, for everyone. Reality: Only those who 'fit' extremely well with the core ideology and demanding standards of a visionary company will find it a great place to work. It's binary. There's no middle ground. It's almost cult-like."

"Their greatest creation is the company itself and what it stands for."

"They just started moving forward, trying anything that might get them out of the garage and pay the light bills."

"...Sam Walton also started without a great idea. He went into business with nothing other than the desire to work for himself and a little bit of knowledge (and a lot of passion) about retailing."

"J. Willard Marriott had the desire to be in business for himself, but not clear idea of what business to be in."

"The problem is, how do you develop an environment in which individuals can be creative?... I believe that you have to put a good deal of thought into your organizational structure in order to provide this environment."

"...the shift to seeing the company itself as the ultimate creation."

"He created cash awards and public recognition for associates who contribute cost saving and/or service enhancements ideas that could be reproduced at other stores."

"Tips and ideas generated by associates got published in the Wal-Mart internal magazine."

"In the 1930s, he established art classes for all animators, installed a small zoo on location to provide live creatures to help improve their ability to draw animals, invented new animation team processes (such as storyboards), and continually invested in the most advanced animation technologies."

"A visionary company doesn't seek balance between short-term and long-term, for example. It seeks to do very well in the short-term and very well in the long-term."

"F. Scott Fitzgerald pointed out, 'The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function."

"Yes, Sony made crude heating pads and sweetened bean-paste soup to keep itself alive (pragmatism), but it always dreamed and pushed toward making pioneering contributions (idealism)."

"And, during the same era, he boldly introduced the $5 day for workers which, at roughly twice the standard industry rate, shocked and outraged the industrial world."

"People who make the numbers and share our values go onward and upward. People who miss the numbers and share ur values get a second chance. People with no values and no numbers - easy call."

"Visionary companies tend to have only a few core values, usually between three and six."

"The only sacred cow in an organization should be its basic philosophy of doing business."

"We've found that companies get into trouble by confusing core ideology with specific, noncore practices."