Super Short Summary

Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras is a nonfiction analysis of what defines visionary companies, based on a six-year research project. The authors identify key characteristics of such companies, including core ideology, maintaining consistent core values, fostering experimentation, and promoting internal leadership development. Collating historical data from surveys of Fortune 500 and Inc 500 CEOs, they pair 18 visionary companies with similar firms for comparison, highlighting how visionary companies integrate dualities like idealism and profit, and short- and long-term goals while preserving their core ideologies and striving for continual progress.