Built to Last (James C. Collins & Jerry I. Porras, 1994)

For those not familiar with the towering epics of business literature by Jim Collins, here's a quick overview. Built to Last came out in 1994 and made a moderate splash. In 2001, he wrote a sequel of sorts called Good to Great, which completely overshadowed its counterpart, so much so that even the author himself suggests reading the "sequel" first. Although the definitions and methodology are all around in Built to Last, he articulates the distinction between the "great" companies (the profiled ones) and the merely "good" ones (the comparison companies) in Good to Great.

Part of the popularity (or detraction) of the book is the anecdotal format. Methodology is largely held to the front matter and the appendix. It is solid methodology, very scientific and quantitative, but the meat of the book is the stories about the different companies, both the enduring companies and their comparisons. It is interesting to read about how Philip Morris started as a London smoke shop, and Marriott was a root beer cart at its beginning. Although the book firmly disavows CEO personality as a factor in the endurance of a company, there is a lot of wisdom spooned out from the leaders of these companies. I recall when reading this interrupting my wife from whatever she was reading to say "did you know...?" about some company and/or its leaders and founders.

Where the detractors may get some credit is that the anecdotes, while fun to read, sort of mar the practical aspects of the book. I can't really think of the anything I read in the book that made me think "a-ha! I will use this at work!". Perhaps the very notion of the enduring company is hard to "implement", even though the authors stress that one need not own a company, let alone a famous one, to learn from the book. So, if anything, I walked away from this book learning more about these companies from their birth to the present day and those factoids are now in my toolbox and may prove useful at unexpected times in the future.

My copy (cover pictured here) was the old hardcover edition, so there was no whisper of Good to Great here. I think later editions, only mildly different, may suggest practical connections for readers between the two books.