Fundamentally altering the way the executives think about long-term success, Built to Last has become a bible among CEOs and managers at prestigious corporations the world over.

'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.

Author Biography

James C. Collins operates a management education and consulting practice based in Palo Alto, California. He is the co-author of Beyond Entrepreneurship and the author of Good to Great. 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.