Romulus Reads: 3 Surprising Takeaways from “Built to Last”
It was only a matter of time before Built to Last made it to Romulus Reads. Not only has this book, the result of a six-year research project by Jim Collins and Jerry I. Porras at Stanford GSB, become an esteemed classic in the business book genre, it also provided founding inspiration for our own firm.
When he started Romulus, Krishna was intrigued by the idea of an organization that could truly stand the test of time — and that, through a combination of creative funding and business-building, could help other companies do the same. The fascination with building a company specifically designed to last is one reason our firm is named for the founder of Rome: an empire whose legacy has been inordinately lasting.
The book follows, in great detail, 18 companies that have proved themselves exceptional and, ultimately, lasting over long tenures. It frequently compares these companies to competitors, which, despite past successes, great leaders, or even superior products, have not built the same type of lasting organizations. Each chapter is packed with detail-rich examples of the various lessons the authors have gleaned about what it is that makes companies long-lasting rather than merely successful.
That’s a distinction that is important to note early on when reading: the companies Collins and Porras profiles are not the only great companies in the world, certainly — but they are distinguished by their combinations of excellence and longevity.
If you’re a founder inspired by the idea of lasting companies, you would benefit from reading this book. By examining decades of data, it paints a broad picture of lasting companies’ differentiating factors. Some of these factors are expected, while others are not. Here are just three (of many!) surprising takeaways from Built to Last.
1. A company needs a great leader, but that might not mean what you might think.
When you think of a great leader, it may be safe to assume that someone quintessentially charismatic comes to mind — someone famous, or particularly eloquent, or ineffably charming. While these types of people can and do run excellent companies, their qualities are actually not necessary in forging a company that is built to last.
It can be easy, Collins and Porras acknowledge, to conflate a strong and energetic leader with a strong company. But sometimes a too-vibrant leader can actually be a detriment to a lasting company, because too much is tied up with that one person. “The visionary companies…take steps to make the ideology pervasive throughout the organization and transcend any individual leader,” write the authors. More than being charismatic, extroverted, or even personally inspiring, the leaders of the truly lasting companies are defined by their persistence and focus on a central ideology. They always think of the company before they think of themselves, creating a core that can function irrespective of their presence.
2. Visionary companies seem to be defined by a series of paradoxes.
Collins and Porras demonstrate, time and again, that the qualities of visionary companies can be learned. But, interestingly, they also indicate that visionary companies may be defined by a series of seemingly conflicting characteristics: these companies fiercely preserve their core ideologies while stimulating growth; they make huge product advances that have lasting ramifications seemingly by accident; they create a culture that people love but that is often uncomfortable; and they are defined by an audacity mixed with incredible confidence — their audacity only seems audacious to outsiders.
One key characteristic of lasting companies is incredible resilience. Visionary companies embrace their paradoxes; they believe fiercely in their ideologies and purposes while craving sustained progress, and this combination often triggers unexpected successes. Often, the reasons these companies have succeeded would not make sense to someone looking to follow a straight and narrow roadmap.
3. Visionary companies are not for everyone.
This was one of the most surprising — but ultimately sensible — takeaways from the book. Visionary companies are simply not for everyone. Across the spectrum of the 18 lasting companies the authors examined, each is fanatical about its core ideology and purpose. That fanaticism creates a base of workers that the authors described as almost “cult-like,” but it certainly does not appeal to the “everyworker.”
The benefit there is that the workers who have opted to work at the visionary companies truly want to be there and have “bought in” to the audacious, resilient core ideology that is greater than any one employee and is the defining feature of each organization. Thus, visionary companies are naturally perpetuated by their people, who choose to keep the cogs of its machine running well into the future.
Visionary companies are often not, nor do they want to be, comfortable places to work. But the type of person who is attracted to the company despite instances of discomfort is often the same type of person who will set or support the “big, hairy, audacious goals” that are further hallmarks of lasting companies.
And one bonus takeaway, which is not at all surprising: visionary companies can’t be copied. Something refreshing about these lasting companies is that they are unified by their authenticity. Their founders did not create stale mission statements or inaccessible core values, but rather they were able to define their company’s true purpose in a way that would be equally valid a century or more past its founding. These purposes varied across the companies; there is no “right” core ideology — what is “right” is the extent to which the companies preserve that core. “Our research indicates that the authenticity of the ideology and the extent to which a company attains consistent alignment with the ideology counts more than the content of the ideology,” write the authors.
The idea of authenticity has always been and will continue to be deeply important to us at Romulus. We continue to seek out those companies defined by an authentic, driving purpose — and we will work hard to continue helping them build strong foundations that will help them last.
