The only way to make any company visionary is through a long-term commitment to an eternal process of building the organization to preserve the core and stimulate progress.
JAMES C. COLLINSI’ve never found an important decision made by a great organization that was made at a point of unanimity.
More James C. Collins Quotes
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In a truly great company profits and cash flow become like blood and water to a healthy body: They are absolutely essential for life but they are not the very point of life
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Not all time in life is equal. How many opportunities do you get to talk about what your life is going to add up to with people thinking about the same question?
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Our findings do not represent a quick fix, or the next fashion statement in a long string of management fads, or the next buzzword of the day, or a new ‘program’ to introduce. No!
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A visionary company doesn’t simply balance between idealism and profitability: it seeks to be highly idealistic and highly profitable.
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There is a sense of exhilaration that comes from facing head-on the hard truths and saying, “We will never give up. We will never capitulate. It might take a long time, but we will find a way to prevail.”
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Creative leadership impact increases in your 50’s. When I turn 50 I want to say, “Nice start!”
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The main point is first get the right people on the bus (and wrong people off the bus) before you figure out where to drive it. The second key point is the degree of sheer rigor in people decisions in order to take a company from Good to Great.
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In an ironic twist, I now see Good to Great not as a sequel to Built to Last, but more of a prequel. Good to Great is about how to turn a good organization into one that produces sustained great results.
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Yet at the same time they display a remarkable humility about themselves, ascribing much of their own success to luck, discipline and preparation rather than personal genius.
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Those who build and perpetuate mediocrity…are motivated more by the fear of being left behind.
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Creativity dies in an indisciplined environment.
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Everytime you think of it, the idea in your head seems to get more vivid, filled in with more detail:
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Built to Last is about how you take a company with great results and turn it into an enduring great company of iconic stature.
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…the question, Why try for greatness? would seem almost tautological. If you’re doing something you care that much about, and you believe in its purpose deeply enough, then it is impossible to imagine not trying to make it great. It’s just a given.
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If I’m going really, really fast, I can do a page of finished text a day, on average.
JAMES C. COLLINS