I'm reading this book for a company book club. My company views this work as guide for building and maintaining the company...making sure that it's 'built to last'. Reading Built to Last is also part of my indoctrination into the company culture, which I am told I am a good 'fit' for. It only follows that our book discussions are filled with comparisons of our company and the 'visionary' companies studied. We spend time relating what we read to what we see on a day-to-day basis at work, which makes this a more interesting experience than if I'd simply read Built to Last on my own. That being said, I don't really care for the writing or rhetorical style of this book, and I think the ideas are a bit outdated (maybe they've already been internalized by the global business community?) but I think it's an interesting glimpse into the commonalities and inner working of some very large, famous and mostly still successful companies. This week, we read about BHAGs and cult-like cultures, the former of which elicited a few YFZ ranch comments (Only in Texas...) but otherwise I think people were a bit reluctant to admit that our company endorses and embraces a cult-like culture. The myriad social groups, on-site cafeterias, free t-shirts, etc. do quite a good job of facilitating a cult-like culture, despite common grumblings I've heard among my co-workers. Anyway, I am glad I am reading this book if for no other reason than I get to witness my co-workers likening my company to a 'visionary' one. More to come...

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So, today is the last day of my corporate book club meeting discussing Built to Last. I was a bit perplexed by one of the last chapters, which basically said "Don't get comfortable." I mean, I get this and all, but is that really the final shining gem that I am to take with me when all is said and done. Meh. Anyway, this has been an interesting enough read, though I think I would recommend that you read a good summary or review of the book as opposed to subjecting yourself to the entire 250+ pages of diluted case studies and less-that-slick rhetoric. This give me an idea....since at least a few of the companies outlined have fallen on hard times, it'd be interesting to make a "Where are they now" short film.

My final words on this book: I'm glad it's over.

Pretty good book, good if you have a bigger company with employees. Wouldn’t recommend for someone starting in businesses

Hay tres conceptos muy importantes a la hora de levantar una empresa que perdure durante siglos:

1.- Fabricar relojes, no dar la hora.

Hay que construir un sistema que facilite el ingreso de nuevos miembros a la compañía.

Se debe evitar a toda costa que la organización dependa, únicamente, de un líder carismático.

El equipo tiene que estar por encima de cualquier individualidad: la cultura de la empresa siempre por arriba de los egos.

2) Aceptar la genialidad del “Y”, alejarse de la tiranía del “O”.

¿Tu empresa tiene que vender mucho o convertirse en una ‘lovemark’?

Ambas cosas.

¿Tienes que pagarle más a tus empleados o invertir en equipo tecnológico?

Ambas cosas.

Las grandes empresas de siempre supieron destacar en varios aspectos, sin tener que descuidar unos y enaltecer otros.

3) Preservar la esencia mientras estimulas el progreso.

La clave está en buscar constantemente la sincronía: establecer unos valores claros que nazcan de la esencia de los fundadores y luego no parar, año tras año, de reforzar esa alma que hace única a la empresa.

Es importante la coherencia entre lo que se predica y lo que finalmente se hace.

No obstante, más allá de que haya unos valores definidos, las grandes organizaciones deben ser lo suficientemente ‘maleables’ para crear cosas nuevas.

La libertad individual, dentro de la estructura grupal, es fundamental.

Frases poderosas:

“‘What do we stand for and why do we exist?’” This should never change. And then feel free to change everything else. Put another way, visionary companies distinguish their timeless core values and enduring purpose (which should never change) from their operating practices and business strategies (which should be changing constantly in response to a changing world).”

“We move more slowly, and grow only as fast as we can and people who will uphold out standards. And we’re willing to forgo business opportunities that would force us to abandon our principles. We’re still here after one hundred years, doubling in size every six or seven years, when most of our competitors from fifty years ago don’t even exist anymore. Why? Because of the discipline to not compromise our standards for the sake of expediency. In everything we do, we take the long view. Always.”

100 điểm! Trời ơi. Hôm nay là ngày đầu tiên đi học sau kì nghỉ đông kéo dài đến 6 tuần. Trong 6 tuần này, tôi cũng học được nhiều thứ ra phết. Lúc đầu tôi muốn đi xin thực tập của gần như tất cả tiệm thuốc trong thành phố, biết rằng giờ chỗ nào cũng kín nên tôi bảo với mọi người rằng là cháu sẵn sàng làm việc không công 50 tiếng 1 tuần ko vấn đề, lấy kinh nghiệm là được. Xong mọi người ai cũng bảo là đang overstaff quá rồi, vs lại giờ covid nặng lắm nên không được quá số người trong 1 cái diện tích như này.

Thế là tôi về nhà, tôi bắt đầu đọc sách. Đam mê kinh khủng. Tôi tự động bước vào nhà sách rồi mua quyển The Bible simplified (quyển này ít chữ mà nhiều tranh ý, vì ở nhà có quyển ebook The Bible King James version nhiều chữ quá không đọc nổi), xong cứ thế đọc lời của Chúa. Ồ, hay vl, tại sao nó lại có thể đơn giản mà kì diệu và hợp lí đến vậy. Và thế là đến Christmas Day, tôi nằm mơ thấy mình được Chúa tặng cho 1 trái tim mới, a heart of flesh in replace of a heart of stone.

Từ hồi hè tôi xem tam quốc mình đã thấy tầm quan trọng của việc có 1 cái nền tảng đạo đức và trí tuệ đúng đắn là như thế nào, rằng càng lên cao cái margin of errors phải càng nhỏ, vì hậu quả khôn lường. Tôi cũng thắc mắc là làm sao lại có người cứ liên tục ngày này qua tháng nọ có những quyết định đúng đắn được như thế nhỉ? Thế là coi như cả kì nghỉ đông này tôi nhận được câu trả lời, từng ngày từng ngày một, mỗi ngày 1 vài insights mới, qua sách, videos youtube, nói chuyện với bạn thân mình, và nhiều khi những suy nghĩ cứ thế mà hiện ra, hay đúng hơn, là được đưa vào trong đầu mình.

Quyển này cũng cho tôi rất nhiều sự hiểu biết như vậy, quan trọng nhất là avoid "the tyranny of the OR", and embrace "the genius of the AND". Nhiều khi khi mình stuck giữa 2 thứ, không biết chọn cái nào, như làm người lớn hay làm trẻ con, theo Phật giáo hay Thiên Chúa giáo, làm việc hay dành thời gian cho gia đình, yêu thương hay thực dụng,... thì câu trả lời là mình có thể có cả 2 chứ. Khó không? Có chứ. Impossible không? Không, possible chứ, nhưng phải cố gắng hơn rất nhiều.

À, nói đến đây mới nhận ra hôm nay là sinh nhật 1 tháng tuổi của tôi đấy, hihi, tôi sẽ đi nấu gà nướng chanh vàng phô mai hoặc gà xào cà ri để ăn mừng.

Refreshing & insightful

even better than Good to Great

Lots of practical insights on how to create companies with longevity. No easy feat and shows that a lot of the companies took huge risks as well as having the culture and tenacity to push through the hard times whilst maintaining their vision and purpose. Really enlightening.

The book looks at a number of companies that have been successful not just for a short time but over decades and examines how they tackled such matters as defining their core business, how this definition changed over time, succession planning, continuous improvement, corporate culture beyond making profits and the falsity of binary choices. From the subject perspective, it was thoroughly researched and tightly written. However, the book is very formally structured as if the first draft was written into a giant table, then the lines were erased and the text edited to make it more readable, albeit only slightly. But this book also suffers from the same problem as so many other books of its genre, as it makes this reader and I expect 99% of the rest of those who read it, think "OK, I'll remember this when I get to be CEO, but until then ..." There is a huge hole in the market for those who are not at or close to the top of a large corporation on how to manage themselves on their way up.

I started to read this book after finishing Good To Great by Jim C Collins and it's really an excellent book that led me to reformulate my own concept about company's core values, purpose. The following chapters Clock Builder, Big Hairy Audacious Goal and Try a lot of stuff are extremely important and it did help me to see the bigger picture of how a company should operate. definitely, it's a must-read the book for any manager, CEO, Entrepreneur who is interested to contribute in building any company/organization that shall last over time.

Three online summaries. This book is not very helpful for me.

The guidelines provided in the book can be adapted at most of the administrative/ managerial levels in any company/ organization for its exponential growth.

Incredible

I may get a lot of flak for this, but this is such an overrated book, I was in awe. After years of hearing this book referenced in a variety of books on business and entrepreneurship, I finally decided to pick it up after hearing that this book is research-based. This book is the epitome of finding data that supports your hypothesis, but the authors tout it as simply writing about their findings. I’m sure I’m scrutinizing this book a tad more than the average reader, but nobody who takes research seriously would agree that what Porras and Collins wrote was anywhere near the scientific standard. If you’re looking for a self-help or motivational book to improve your work ethic or help you remember your core values, feel free to check this book out. But this book is not what it’s advertised as and aside from being riddled with research flaws, the evidence is all anecdotal.