Built to Last

Perenial contributor Jason Bennett has sent in a review of Built to Last, by James C. Collins and Jerry I. Porras. This is part of Jason's continuing series of review about books that are not directly code related, but about how you run a programming/information shop. Check out the full review below.

Built to Last
author	James C. Collins and Jerry I. Porras
pages
publisher	HarperBusiness
rating	9/10
reviewer	Jason Bennett
ISBN	0-88730-739-6
summary	This is the first book I've ever read the confirmed what I've always believed: that the best companies are the ones that put people above profits.

Background

Welp, it's been a couple of weeks of slackfest over here, but I finally got my butt in gear. Unfortunately, I had to loan out the book I was going to review at the last minute, so I thought I'd substitute this one. I also just finished The Deadline by Tom DeMarco, and have had a nice email conversation with him. Great book, with a neat story and lots of excellent points. I'll get to it in a few weeks. For now, a book that relates to computers the least of all the ones I've done, yet I think gets to the heart of something that the Linux community embodies: that our beliefs are more important than going along with the group. Check it out!

What's the book about?

Built to Last is the collected knowledge of a study that began in 1989 to discover what makes visionary companies. Visionary companies are "premier institutions -- the crown jewels -- in their industries, widely admired by their peer and having a long track record [at least 50 years in this study] of making a significant impact on the world around them." This was done by surveying CEOs and finding out which companies they admired, then studying them in comparison to similarly long-lived companies that were not as admired or successful. The visionary companies are the truly special ones, while the comparison companies are just good enough. But what makes a company visionary? In short, the visionary companies are not the ones with the great ideas of charismatic leaders, but the ones which build the company instead of building thing. Visionary companies are the ones which believe in something (anything!) above profits. Visionary companies are the ones which preserve a set of core beliefs which stimulating progress into the future. Visionary companies set BHAGs (Big Hairy Audacious Goals), goals which are almost impossible, and believe that those goals can be met. Visionary companies have a culture that is almost a religion, where the employees share a set of beliefs (the core values) and live them out every day. Visionary companies are not afraid to try new things, as long as those new things do not violate the core beliefs. Visionary companies grow their own management who preserve the beliefs, instead of bringing in random outsiders. Visionary companies always strive to be better, and are not complacent. Visionary companies are not perfect, and they do stumble, but they are much better equipped to pick themselves up than their regular counterparts.

In short, we are all part of a visionary company: the Linux community. We believe in the freedom of software. We believe in choice of operating system. We believe that no one person of company should dictate what the rest of us do. In order to achieve this, we should be willing to change anything. The kernel. The UI. Heck, we should we willing to change to another operating system entirely, because whether we run Linux or FreeBSD is irrelevant. What is important is the fulfillment of our beliefs. Linus has sent a BHAG for us: World Domination. As long as we continue to build the community, and not just focus on the current OS, the Free Software movement will continue to be strong.

What's Good?

Ok, that was some good preaching. As I said, this book does not mention computer programming at all (save for having IBM as a visionary company), but it does describe us. This book details what is important: not money, but ideology. Money will flow from a strong ideology, but not the other way around. Those who take this book to heart will be part of a community, a company, that will flourish well into the next century.

What's Bad?

Heh, have I built this up enough? Seriously, though, the book isn't perfect. The structure can be a little haphazard at times, and there isn't a good listing of what the books conclusions are (they're a little scattered). The paperback does add a nice summary chapter that appeared in the Harvard Business Review, which covers this problem somewhat.

What's In It For Us?

I think I covered this. :-) Seriously, I think the Linux community would be well served to develop a set of core beliefs and core purposes and write them down. In this way, we could have an artifact of what we hold dear, a credo, that we can show to those who will be flocking to our gates. Obviously, not everyone who runs Linux (or a free OS) must hold these beliefs, just as not every IBM customer holds to their beliefs. Those who are "employees," however, should be thoroughly indoctrinated.

Purchase the book over at Amazon.

• Acknowledgements
• Introduction to the Paperback Edition
• Preface

1. The Best of the Best
2. Clock Building, Not Time Telling
3. No "Tyranny of the OR"
4. More Than Profits
5. Preserve the Core/Stimulate Progress
6. Big Hairy Audacious Goals
7. Cult-Like Cultures
8. Try a Lot of Stuff and Keep What Works
9. Home-Grown Management
10. Good Enough Never Is
11. The End of the Beginning
12. Building the Vision

• Epilogue: Frequently Asked Questions
• Appendix 1: Research Issues
• Appendix 2: Founding Roots of Visionary Companies and Comparison Companies
• Appendix 3: Tables
• Appendix 4: Chapter Notes
• Index