C ORE IDEOLOGY THEE X TRAD I MEN SI ONO F

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reasonably polite in their disagreement, it was quite evident that they firmly believed that I was not one of them, and obviously not qualified to manage an important Hewlett and Packard exemplify a key "extra dimension' that helped elevate their company to the elite status of an enduring great company, a vital dimension for making the transition from good to great to built to last. That extra dimension is a guiding philosophy or a "core ideology" which consists of core values and a core purpose (reason for being beyond just making money. These resemble the principles in the Declaration of Independence (We hold these truths to be self-evident
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')-never perfectly followed, but always present as an inspiring standard and an answer to the question of why it is important that we exist. We wrote in Built to Last about Merck's decision to develop and distribute a drug that cured river blindness. This painful disease afflicted over a million people with parasitic worms that swarm through the eyes to cause blindness. Because those who had the disease-tribal people in remote places like the had no money, Merck initiated the creation of an independent distribution system to get the drug to remote villages and gave the drug away free to millions of people around the To be clear, Merck is not a charity organization, nor does it view itself as such. Indeed, it has consistently outperformed the market as a highly profitable company, growing to nearly $6 billion in profits and beating the market by over ten times from 1946 to
2000. Yet, despite its remarkable financial performance, Merck does not view its ultimate reason for being as making money. In 1950, George Merck son of the founder, set forth his company's philosophy We try to remember that medicine is for the patient.
. It is not for the profits. The profits follow, and if we have remembered that, they have never failed to appear. The better we have remembered it, the larger they have

Good to Great An important caveat to the concept of core values is that there are no specific "right' core values for becoming an enduring great company. No matter what core value you propose, we found an enduring great company that does not have that specific core value. A company need not have passion for its customers (Sony didn't), or respect for the individual (Disney didn't), or quality (Wal-Mart or social responsibility (Ford didn't) in order to become enduring and great. This was one of the most paradoxical findings from Built to Last-core values are essential for enduring greatness, but it doesn't seem to matter what those core values are. The point is not what core values you have, but that you have core values at all, that you know what they are, that you build them explicitly into the organization, and that you preserve them overtime. This notion of preserving your core ideology is a central feature of enduring great companies. The obvious question is, How do you preserve the core and yet adapt to a changing world The answer Embrace the key concept of preserve the progress. The Disney exemplifies this duality. In 1923, an energetic moved from Kansas City to Los Angeles and tried to get a job in movie business. No film company would hire him, so he used his meager savings to rent a camera, setup a studio in his uncle's garage, and begin making animated cartoons. In 1934, Mr. Disney took the bold step, never before taken, to create successful full-length animated feature films, including Snow White, Pinocchio, Fantasia, and Bambi. In the Disney moved into television with the Mickey Mouse Club. Also in the Walt Disney paid a fateful visit to a number of amusement parks and came away disgusted, calling them "dirty, phony places, run by tough-looking He decided that Disney could build something much better, perhaps even the best in the world, and the company launched a whole new business in theme parks, first with Disneyland and later with Walt Disney World and EPCOT Center.

Collins

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