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  • Published: 3 October 2005
  • ISBN: 9781844135844
  • Imprint: Random House Business
  • Format: Hardback
  • Pages: 368
  • RRP: $75.00

Built To Last

Successful Habits of Visionary Companies



The key to building an organisation for lasting success.

'This is not a book about charismatic visionary leaders. It is not about visionary product concepts or visionary products or visionary market insights. Nor is it about just having a corporate vision. This is a book about something far more important, enduring, and substantial. This is a book about visionary companies.'

Drawing upon a six-year research project at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business, Collins and Porras took eighteen truly exceptional and long-lasting companies and studied each company in direct comparison to one of its top competitors. They examined the companies from their very beginnings to the present day - as start-ups, as midsize companies and as large corporations. Throughout, the authors asked: 'What makes the truly exceptional companies different from other companies?'

Filled with hundreds of specific examples and organized into a coherent framework of practical concepts that can be applied by managers and entrepreneurs at all levels, Built to Last provides a master blueprint for building organizations that will prosper long into the twenty-first century and beyond.

  • Published: 3 October 2005
  • ISBN: 9781844135844
  • Imprint: Random House Business
  • Format: Hardback
  • Pages: 368
  • RRP: $75.00

About the authors

Jerry Porras

Jerry L. Porras is the Fred H. Merrill Professor of Organizational Behaviour and Change at Stanford University Graduate School of Business. He is the author of Stream Analysis and the co-inventor of stream analysis computer software.

Jim Collins

Jim Collins is a student of companies – great ones, good ones, weak ones, failed ones – from young start-ups to venerable sesquicentenarians. The author of the national bestseller Good to Great and co-author of Built to Last, he serves as a teacher to leaders throughout the corporate and social sectors. His most recent book is Great by Choice, a look at why some companies thrive in uncertain times. His work has been featured in Fortune, Business Week, The Economist, USA Today, and Harvard Business Review. You can find more information about Jim and his work at his e-teaching site, www.jimcollins.com.

Praise for Built To Last

A huge inspiration for our business growth strategy over the years.

Andy Lothian, CEO of Insights Group, Management Today

'One of the most eye-opening business studies since In Search of Excellence.'

Kevin Maney, USA Today

'Built to Last is an unusual business book - seriously researched, unconventional in its conclusions...[It] is well worth reading, particularly by those engaged in trying to reinvigorate our nation's largest enterprises.'

Richard J. Tofel, Wall Street Journal

'In Built to Last, Collins and Porras present a brilliant and lucid analysis and, yes, a blueprint for organizational excellence. It should be required reading.'

Warren Bennis