From "Good to Great" to "Built to Last"

This is the final chapter of Good to Great. It is about taking a company that is great to the stage where it will continue to be great. The author of Good to Great, Jim Collins actually co-wrote a called Built to Last based on this concept. It was actually written before Good to Great. Good to Great, he says, is more of a prequel to Built to Last.

This chapter I suppose then is a summary of the concepts in Built to Last.

• Enduring Comapanies don't merely exist to make money. In truly great companies, 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.
• Enduring companies have core values that drive what they do. They preserve this core values while endlessly adapting their strategies to a changing world. Strategies change, values remain.
• Enduring companies set BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goals) in front of themselves that fit within the Hedgehog concept. Like the 1960's NASA moon mission, a BHAG captures the imaginationa and grabs people in the gut.
• To remain great over time requires, on one hand, staying squarely within the three circles while, on the other hand, being willing to change the specific manifestation if what's inside the three circles at any given moment.
• Greatness doesn't necessarily mean more work; it means more work doing the right things.

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I may read Built to Last sometime down the road as I have enjoyed reading Good to Great. Who would have known that I would enjoy a business book? I did though, and found that I could apply many of the concepts from the business world to my own life, and my ministry. Between this book and 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, I have read 2 books that I would have never thought that I would enjoy, but have. Its good to read widely, I am learning.... but as long as it doesnt come at the expense of the other theology type books!