Level 5 Leadership

More than 15,000 hours were put into the Good to Great project by author Jim Collins and his team. In the research, they identified companies that had been following at or below the standard market performance for at least 15 years, and then had a huge increase, dramatically outperforming the market over a 15 year […]

Trying a Lot of Things and Keeping What Works

In Built to Last, the authors said:
In examining the history of visionary companies we were struck by how often they made some of their best moves not by detailed strategic planning, but rather by experimentation, trial and error, opportunism, and–quite literally accident.
This week I read an interview in Founders at Work with Paul Buchheit of […]

Leadership & Self Deception

We each have a serious problem. Everyone around us knows about our problem but us. The problem is that each of us cannot see that we have a problem. This is self-deception. Each of us engage in self-deception at times, and when we do, we live and work as if we are trapped in a […]

Big Hairy Audacious Goals

All companies have goals, but many of the most successful companies set Big Hairy Audacious Goals (”BHAGs”). There is a big difference between merely having a goal, and being fully committed to a huge, daunting challenge–like a mountain to climb.
Far better to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, […]

Tyranny of “OR” and Genius of “AND”

According Jim Collins and Jerry Porras in Build to Last, the “tyranny of the OR” leads businesses to feel that they can only choose one option or the other, but not both, such as:

Change OR stability,
Conservative OR bold,
Low cost OR high quality,
Creative autonomy OR consistency and control,
Invest in future OR do well in short-term,
Make progress […]

Clock Building Instead of Time Telling

In Built to Last, authors Jim Collins and Jerry Porras talk about a hypothetical person who could look at the sun or stars and tell the exact time down to the second. That person would be an amazing “time teller”. However, wouldn’t it be much more amazing if that person created a clock which could […]

Core Ideologies in Visionary Companies

In Built to Last, the authors identified “Visionary” companies which met very rigorous standards of sustained greatness. The authors did not find any specific ideological content as being essential in these visionary companies. However, the authors did find that it was essential that the companies have a core ideology of some sort, and […]

Business Myths & Realities

In preparation to write the book Built to Last, authors Jim Collins and Jerry Porras and a team at Stanford University researched highly successful (“visionary”) and less successful companies for six years. Their research debunked many myths commonly held in the business world. The following are some of the myths and findings that I found […]

Walt Disney Was a Failure (Which Helped Him Succeed)

Disneyland and Disneyworld are the most famous and successful theme parks in the world. The Walt Disney Company is now the third largest entertainment company in the world with 133,000 employees and $60 Billion in revenue. According to Fortune magazine, in 2007, Disney is America’s most admired entertainment company.
According to Newsweek, the Disney brand is […]

Winners Sometimes Quit

Most of the challenges we face in our lives can be overcome through hard work and perseverance. I have been inspired by famous perseverance quotes such as “Quitters never win and winners never quit” from Vince Lombardi. I have come to believe this is misguided advice.

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