<aside> ☝ What is a visionary company? Visionary companies are premier institutions —the crown jewels— in their industries, widely admired by their peers and having a long track record of making a significant impact on the world around them. Visionary companies prosper over long periods of time, through multiple product life cycles and multiple generations of active leaders. This study examined 18 visionary companies from 1850-1900 to nowadays, and compared them with 18 comparison companies.
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Myth 1: It takes a great idea to start a great company
→ Few of the visionary companies began life with a great idea. In fact, some began life without any specific idea.
Myth 2: Visionary companies require great and charismatic visionary leaders
→ A charismatic visionary leader is absolutely not required, and in fact, can be detrimental to a company's long-term prospects. Their leaders concentrated more on architecting an enduring institution than on being a great individual leader. They sought to be clock builders, not time tellers.
Myth 3: The most successful companies exist first and foremost to maximize profit
→ Visionary companies pursue a cluster of objectives, of which making money is only one — and not necessarily the primary one. They're equally guided by a core ideology — core values and sense of purpose beyond just making money.
Myth 4: Visionary companies share a common subset of "correct" core values
→ There is no "right" set of core values for being a visionary company. The crucial variable is not the content of a company's ideology, but how deeply it believes its ideology and how consistently it lives, breathes, and expresses it in all that it does. They ask, "What do we actually value deep down to our toes?"
Myth 5: The only constant is change
→ A visionary company almost religiously preserves its core ideology —changing it seldom, if ever. While keeping their its core ideology tightly fixes, a visionary company displays a powerful drive for progress that enables it to change and adapt without compromising their cherished core ideals.
Myth 6: Blue-chip companies play it safe