Visionary Companies – Part 1

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Source: The following article is a collection of my thoughts based on my understanding of the chapters mentioned in the book ‘Built to Last’. I will be writing a series of articles based on visionary companies. Some of the terminologies have been directly picked up from the book. This article specifically deals with the definition of a visionary company.
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What defines a visionary company (VC)?
Visionary companies are premier institutions in their respective industries having a long track record of making a huge impact to the world. These are the companies who have gone through multiple rounds of product life cycles and have produced generations of leaders from within the organization.

VCs believe in the philosophy that a good idea is always a bad idea. They have never waited for any good idea; in fact they have grown by experimenting new methods, made mistakes and then finally created an identity of their own.

Profit-making is the last thing on their agenda. Values, ideologies and a sense of purpose form their core strength and drive their growths. Yet, these companies have a record of generating maximum profits.

They primarily focus on improving themselves rather than beating their competitors. They believe in having Big Hairy Audacious Goals (BHAGs) – according to these companies BHAGs work as their oxygen which eventually enables them to do their best.

VCs believe in the ‘Genius of the AND’ rather than ‘Tyranny of the OR’. For them it is always A and B and not A or B.

This article has focused on the definition of VCs - I will be writing many such articles relating to VCs. It might seem that I have ended this article abruptly but it is not the case. The concept of VC is so vast that it is impossible to include everything in just one article. Watch this space for related articles.