• “Twelve shattered myths:
  • It takes a great idea to start a great company: Like the parable of the tortoise and the hare, visionary companies get off to t a slow start but often win the long race. Some visionary companies started without any specific idea. They were significantly less likely to have early entrepreneurial success than the comparison companies.
  • Visionary companies require charismatic and great leaders. CEOs of visionary companies focused not on being time-tellers but rather on building clocks.
  • Visionary companies exist to make profit/maximize shareholder returns: While making money and turning a profit is as important to them as blood and water is to life, it is not the end goal. They have a core ideology – core values and sense of purpose beyond just making money.

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• ” I don’t primarily think of my work as about the study of business, nor do I see this as fundamentally a business book. Rather….I’m curious to understand fundamental differences between great and good, between excellent and mediocre. I just happen to use corporations as a means of getting inside the black box. “
• “Good is the enemy of great, and that is one of the key reasons why we have so little that becomes great. We don’t have great schools, principally because we have good schools. We don’t have a great government, principally because we have good government. Few people attain great lives, in large part because it is just so easy to settle for a good life. The vast majority of companies never become great, precisely because the vast majority become quite good-and that is their main problem. ”
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