This document discusses key themes from several books and authors on building effective organizations. It highlights that visionary companies are guided more by a core ideology of values and purpose beyond just profits. Having a deeply held core ideology gives an organization a strong sense of identity and continuity. Effective strategies are about understanding your core capabilities and meeting customer needs to create competitive advantage. Mission statements should clearly convey how the organization intends to win in its industry through specific behaviors. Maintaining faith in prevailing while confronting brutal facts is seen as important for organizations.
2. Strategy is a way to win
and nothing less.
Â
-A.J. LaïŹey, Playing To Win
3. Those who built the visionary companies
wisely understood that it is better to
understand who you are than where
you are going â for where you are
going will almost certainly change.
-Built to Last by Jim Collins & Jerry I. Porras
4. In 17 of the 18 pairs of companies in our
research, we found the visionary
company was guided more by a core
ideologyâcore values and a sense of
purpose beyond just making moneyâ
than the comparison company was.
-Good to Great by Jim Collins
5. A deeply held core ideology
company both a strong sense
and a thread of continuity that
organization together in the
change.
gives a
of identity
holds the
face of
-Jim Collins
6. In the end, building a
strategy isnât about
achieving perfection; itâs
about shortening your
odds.
-A.J. LaïŹey, Playing To Win
8. You must maintain unwavering faith that you
can and will prevail in the end, regardless
of the difïŹculties, and at the same time
have the discipline to confront the most
brutal facts of your current reality, whatever
they might be.
-Jim Collinsâ Good to Great
Â
9. There are also several themes youâll hear again and again:
The team with the best players wins, so ïŹnd and
retain the best players;
donât over-brain things to the point of inaction;
no matter what part of a business youâre in, share
learning relentlessly;
have a positive attitude and spread it around;
never let yourself be a victim;
and for goodnessâ sakeâhave fun.
-Winning by Jack & Suzy Welch
10. A good mission statement and a good set of values
are so real they smack you in the face with their
concreteness.
The mission announces exactly where you are going,
and the values describe the behaviors that will get
you there. Speaking of that, I prefer abandoning
the term values altogether in favor of just
behaviors.
-Winning by Jack & Suzy Welch
11. A strategy is a coordinated and integrated
set of where-to-play, how-to-win, core
capability, and management system
choices that uniquely meet a consumerâs
needs, thereby creating competitive
advantage and superior value for a
business. Strategy is a way to win
âand nothing less.
Â
-A.J. LaïŹey, Playing To Win
12. In my experience, an effective mission
statement basically answers one question:
How do we intend to win in this
business?
-Winning by Jack & Suzy Welch
13. An effective mission statement does not
answer: What were we good at in the good
old days? Nor does it answer: How can we
describe our business so that no particular
unit or division or senior executive gets
pissed off?
-Winning by Jack & Suzy Welch
14. At the end of the day, effective mission
statements balance the possible and the
impossible. They give people a clear
sense of the direction to proïŹtability and
the inspiration to feel they are part of
something big and important.
-Winning by Jack & Suzy Welch
38. Sources:
Built to Last â Jim Collins & Jerry I. Porras
Good to Great â Jim Collins
Great by Choice â Jim Collins & Morten T. Hansen
Winning â Jack and Suzy Welch
Playing to Win â A.J. LaïŹey