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. Table of Contents : Acknowledgements Preface to the tenth anniversary edition Preface to the first edition Introduction 1. The best of the best 2. Clock building, not time telling Interlude: No "tyranny of the OR" 3. More than profits 4. Preserve the core/stimulate progress 5. Big hairy audacious goals 6. Cult-like cultures 7. Try a lot of stuff and keep what works 8. Home-grown management 9. Good enough never is 10. The end of the beginning 11. Building the vision Epilogue: Frequently asked questions Appendix A: Research issues Appendix B: Founding roots of visionary companies and comparison companies Appendix C: Tables Appendix D: Chapter notes Index