Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies
During a research team meeting, one of our research assistants made the observation, “Joining these companies reminds me of joining an extremely tight-knit group or society. And if you don’t fit, you’d better not join. If you’re willing to really buy in and dedicate yourself to what the company stands for, then you’ll be very satisfied and productive—probably couldn’t be happier. If not, however, you’ll probably flounder, feel miserable and out-of-place, and eventually leave—ejected like a virus. It’s binary: You’re either in or you’re out, and there seems to be no middle ground. It’s almost cult-like.”
Fervently held ideology (discussed earlier in our chapter on core ideology)
Indoctrination
Tightness of fit
Elitism
Tags: #company-culture #commitment #team-building #binary-systems
Clock Building, Not Time Telling / 23
Tags: #systems-thinking #company-building #leadership #long-term-vision
IBM’S RISE TO GREATNESS
Tags: #corporate-culture #leadership #high-performance #systems-thinking #history
The point of this chapter is not that you should set out to create a cult of personality. That’s the last thing you should do. Rather, the point is to build an organization that fervently preserves its core ideology in specific, concrete ways. The visionary companies translate their ideologies into tangible mechanisms aligned to send a consistent set of reinforcing signals. They indoctrinate people, impose tightness of fit, and
Tags: #organizational-design #culture #leadership #ideology #systems-thinking
In examining the history of the visionary companies, we were struck by how often they made some of their best moves not by detailed strategic planning, but rather by experimentation, trial and error, opportunism, and—quite literally—accident. What looks in hindsight like a brilliant strategy was often the residual result of opportunistic experimentation and “purposeful accidents.”
Tags: #strategy #experimentation #innovation #serendipity #business
chapter 7
Tags: #evolutionary-strategy #innovation #trial-and-error #business-principles
Practical, concrete items to create a sense of belonging to something special:
Orientation and ongoing training programs that have ideological as well as practical content, teaching such things as values, norms, history, and tradition
Internal “universities” and training centers
On-the-job socialization by peers and immediate supervisors.
Rigorous up-through-the-ranks policies—hiring young, promoting from within, and shaping the employee’s mind-set from a young age
Exposure to a pervasive mythology of “heroic deeds” and corporate exemplars (for example, customer heroics letters, marble statues)
Unique language and terminology (such as “cast members,” “Motorolans”) that reinforce a frame of reference and the sense of belonging to a special, elite group
Corporate songs, cheers, affirmations, or pledges that reinforce psychological commitment
Tight screening processes, either during hiring or within the first few years
Incentive and advancement criteria explicitly linked to fit with the corporate ideology
Awards, contests, and public recognition that reward those who display great effort consistent with the ideology. Tangible and visible penalties for those who break ideological boundaries
Tolerance for honest mistakes that do not breach the company’s ideology (“non-sins”); severe penalties or termination for breaching the ideology (“sins”)
“Buy-in” mechanisms (financial, time investment)
Celebrations that reinforce successes, belonging, and specialness
Plant and office layout that reinforces norms and ideals
Constant verbal and written emphasis on corporate values, heritage, and the sense of being part of something special
Tags: #corporate-culture #company-building #ideology #leadership #organizational-psychology
chapter 6
Tags: #culture #leadership #rituals #core-values
A high-profile, charismatic style is absolutely not required to successfully shape a visionary company. Indeed, we found that some of the most significant chief executives in the history of the visionary companies did not have the personality traits of the archetypal high-profile, charismatic visionary leader.
Tags: #leadership #company-building #vision #charisma
‘I had no vision of the scope of what I would start,’ Walton commented in a New York Times interview, ‘but I always had confidence that as long as we did our work well and were good to our customers, there would be no limit to us.’
Tags: #company-building #execution #emergent-strategy #startups