The authors discovered that the visionary companies did certain things very differently from their duller rivals, things that in large part were more about the internal than the external and had little to do with technology or number-crunching. Among these were having “cultlike cultures”; adhering to an ideology that went beyond the simple pursuit of profits; relying on homegrown management; focusing on creating a lasting organization — called “clock building,” as opposed to “time telling”; and having the ability to see things not as either-or propositions (the “genius of the ‘and,’ ” in the authors’ words, as opposed to the “tyranny of the ‘or’ “). “A visionary company,” they wrote, “doesn’t simply balance between preserving a tightly held core ideology and stimulating vigorous change and movement; it does both to the extreme.”
Was "Built To Last" Built To Last?
via fastcompany.com