One key element to understand, the existing business and what’s next – innovation is inseparable.
Did you take the built to last self-assessment shown in my previous blog? The self-assessment includes some elements that Jim Collins presented in his book Built to Last.
Here is the self-assessment in my previous blog.
Jim Collins identified 18 visionary companies that he recognized as built to last. The 18 companies began in 1812 to 1946. The research behind these was extensive as he explained in his book.
- “100 books
- Over 3,000 individual documents (articles, case studies, achieve materials, corporate publications, video footage)
- Reviewed over sixty thousand pages of material, the actual number is probably closer to one hundred thousand pages
- Filled three shoulder height file cabinets
- Four bookshelves
- Twenty megabytes for financial data and analysis”
- The team that conducted the research and completed the book numbered over 30
- Copy writes for book are 1994, 1997 and 2002, total pages 342
Consider what corporations face today that were not present then or as developed as in 2021.
- Global scale for most businesses, supply chain, customers, employees, operations, sales and marketing
- Technological changes and the pace of change
- Inflation the highest since 1990
- Cyber threats to steal your data on customers, employees, IP, financial resources, hold hostage any organization for financial gain
- Possibly expanding government regulation
- Political correctness
- Social media
- Work from home or choose not to work creating labor shortages, increasing labor costs
- 24/7 news reporting, apps on phone reporting constant business information
- Climate change
- Pandemic
Do these make built to last a more challenging proposition today?
There were also 18 comparison companies, one for each of the 18 visionary companies. Is there a comparison company to yours? How do you compare?
Do you think your company is built to last? What would you base your answer on?
For this blog series, I will attempt to provide information for you to determine if your company has what it takes to be built to last.
The list below includes the 18 visionary companies and 18 comparison companies that Jim Collins completed in his research for the book Built to Last.
| Visionary | Year Began | Comparison | Year Began |
| Citicorp | 1812 | Chase Manhattan | 1799/1877 |
| Proctor & Gamble | 1837 | Colgate | 1806 |
| Philip Morris | 1847 | RJR Nabisco | 1875 |
| AMEX | 1850 | Wells Fargo | 1852 |
| J & J | 1886 | Bristol-Myers Squibb | 1887 |
| Merck | 1891 | Pfizer | 1849 |
| General Electric | 1892 | Westinghouse | 1886 |
| Nordstrom | 1901 | Melville | 1892 |
| 3M | 1902 | Norton | 1885 |
| Ford | 1903 | GM | 1908 |
| IBM | 1911 | Burroughs | 1892 |
| Boeing | 1915 | McDonnell Douglas | 1920 |
| Walt Disney | 1923 | Columbia | 1920 |
| Marriott | 1927 | Howard Johnson | 1925 |
| Motorola | 1928 | Zenith | 1923 |
| Hewlett-Packard | 1938 | Texas Instruments | 1930 |
| Sony | 1945 | Kenwood | 1946 |
| Wal-Mart | 1945 | Ames | 1958 |
As you review the lists of companies, you will recognize some and not others. Some have come and gone. We can start on a macro view of the visionary companies. What are some elements, characteristics, issues that they experienced and still operate?
- Founders came and went
- Multiple generations of leadership
- Product life cycles begin and end
- Recognized as a leader in its industry
- Admired by others
- Impact their local community and globally
- They failed and rebooted
- Faced cash-flow problems
- Layoffs of a significant number
- Stock price declines
- Experienced significant profit losses
- Lived through business collapse, depressions, recessions
- Near bankruptcy
- Lawsuits from stockholders, customers, employees, governments
- Products/service an integral part of global society
- Touched the lives all over the world
- Managed business startup to continuing operations after 50, 100, 150, 200 years
- A great place to work
- Started with a plan, an idea
- Started without a plan, a general idea
- Do whatever to pay the light bill
Any of these in your history? How did you manage through them? How did your company come out? What have you learned? What changed as a result?
There is no formula to ensure that your company is built to last. Why are companies that are over 200 years old still operating? Let’s examine some specific reasons. This will be the topic in the next blog.
The year 2022 is upon us all – Happy New Year.
We are all on a journey to build our company, all the best.