Built to last is a nicely written (and read) book by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras that has greatly influenced the management and consulting thinking in the latter decades.
Personally I found it Storytelling at the level of 'time-telling', rather than 'clock-building'.
Because (IMO) the authors fail to address the special circumstances in which those significant events occured. The US economy has changed significantly in these decades, and 'any idea' could end in a great product/service ... which could lead to a great company (if indeed the owners/managers made use of the "best practices -which is the underlying story behind the book).
Nowadays (IMO), any entrepreneur really needs a big idea or good specific-knowledge of the field where he wants to break in, because otherwise the difference between his cost of capital and that of the competitors already established in the market is plainly too big.
Corolary: make use of the best practices. E.g.: align management and employees interests with that of the firm, ...
They recommend to 1) make Big Hairy Audacious Goals (BHAGs): long-term vision projects that are supposed to be so daring in its scope as to seem impossible for outsiders; 2) Evolutionary Progress: Try a lot of stuff and keep what works; and 3) Good-enough never is, driven self-Improvement.
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