Built to Last – Chapter 3

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We are going to start a series of posts on the book Built to Last by Jim Collins and Jerry I. Porras. As of the writing of this post its only $13.23 for new and $11.60 for used.  Both prices are from Amazon.com.  It is definitely worth the money as you will soon see through our chapter by chapter walk through the book.  So join the conversation and get the book! You can check out the previous posts here.

No “Tryanny of the OR” and More Than Profits – Chatper 3

The 3rd chapter for this series of blog posts was the very helpful for me.  It discussed the idea that companies are more than just profit making machines.  They need to be so much more.  According to the research which was presented in Built to Last the majority of the companies had some sort of guiding principles or even a formal credo or mission statement.   This statement was always bigger then just building the business to make money.  It was something which the employees and staff could cling to in times of trouble or just in general.  This really resonated with me.  To not have just a company whose entire goal is to make a ton of money but to effectively change the world or do something much more than just making money.  For example: Johnson and Johnson have a credo that they filter their decisions by.  The credo has much more than just making money on it.  The making of money is actually the final item in the credo.  Making money is number five in the credo.  The first four are all about being responsible to others in the community.  Weather it be doctors, people that work with them, their management, or the community that they live in.  One fifth of the entire credo is devoted to shareholders and money the other four fifths is devoted too much more than money.

In today’s society with our current economy it is encouraging to see that business that are all about the money are not seen as visionary companies.  With the scandal of AIG’s corporate bonuses and the continuing saga of having people loose there houses its awesome to see companies who really do care about more than just money.  When I build a business I plan on incorporating my faith into a type of credo.  When you read most of the credo’s or statements of core beliefs in the companies you can see a slight over tone of faith which is awesome to hear.  I know that I will incorporate faith into my credo as much as I can without making it a clearly religious document.