Status Updates From Built to Last

“To become visionary requires translating intangibles… this is where most companies fail to make the grade… The single most important point to take away from this book is the critical importance of creating tangible mechanisms aligned to preserve the core and stimulate progress.”

This book is quite contradictory (to good to great and to itself), and it feels like I'm being gaslighted into thinking that it all adds up somehow.

Forgive me for my impatience with the incredulity the authors treat having a founding manifesto. I mean... any religious person realizes having a purpose is the reason people get out of bed in the morning. Still, given the original publication date, it's reasonable to consider that this was a significant finding at the time. Nowadays, you have saturation of ideals that are greenwashing for corporate greed

This is breezy reading if you've already read Good to Great. Some theories proposed as speculative here (charismatic CEOs are negatively correlated with long-term performance) are empirically tested in Good to Great. What's puzzling so far: the desire to build a company is, in it of itself, is worth building one for. Legacy for the sake of legacy is worth a lifetime of work? Hmmm