AND

"Built to Last" by Jerry Porras and James Collins is one of the most influential business books. This book was first published more than a decade ago (1994). Unlike other business books which get dated after a few years, "Built to Last" is a timeless classic. I am reading this book for the 1st time. The depth of research and the quality of the analysis is impressive.

"Built to Last" uses an ingenious method of analyzing "visionary" companies against their "successful" competitors. For example, IBM is compared to Burroughs; Boeing against McDonald-Douglas; and Merck against Pfizer. The difference in performance between the visionary companies versus the merely successful is startling.

Porras and Collins conclude that "visionary" companies do not settle for the "OR", but instead seek the more challenging "AND".

For example, the visionary companies:

- have purpose AND pursue profits,

- have a clear vision AND are opportunistic and experimental, and

- invest for the long term AND demand short-term performance.

"AND" is hard. The key to "AND" is to establish core values throughout the organization no matter the size. In fact, it is easier to establish "core values" at an early stage in an organization's life. These values are the guiding principles, which in turn attract like minded individuals to the organization. A "visionary" company's passionate employees can produce more and innovate faster than competitors whose teams do not have this "sense of purpose".

The concepts in "Built to Last" are profound and are best left to Porras and Collins. For startup founders, this book is a must read. The thing that you hear time and again from successful entrepreuners and VCs is that in order to succeed, the founding team and early employees must be passionate about the business. "Built to Last" shows how the most successful companies scale and institutionalize this passion.