Built to Last: Underestimating Leadership

I have started reading 'Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies' by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras. As the title suggests, the book aims to analyse the habits of visionary companies for the benefit of entrepreneurs, managers, CEOs and other business building professionals. In this, its research methodology is pretty similar to "In Search of Excellence". It differs, however, by the fact that it tries to bring out the successful habits by comparing the visionary companies with good but not visionary companies in the similar sector. I think the book may have some useful insights just because it uses some practical examples and data to assert its beliefs. Nevertheless, I would take what it says with a big pinch of salt.

One of the first assertions that I have read in this book is that one does not need a leader to make a sustainable great company as great companies last much beyond their leadership. Instead, a company that is value-based, can clearly articulate its purpose of existence, find a profitable denominator and implement its philosophy consistently across the board will succeed. Moreover, the author believes that anybody can become a leader.

I find the entire assertion true and childish in equal measure. What the author says is true theoretically, without a doubt. It is akin to a preacher telling us that we all are potentially divine and there is a saint within all of us. It may be a good management policy (or the politically right thing to increase book sales figures) to tell everybody how good and equal they are. But lets face it: human beings are neither same nor equal. Our physical strength, knowledge, capabilities, experience, motivations, morals, beliefs, wisdom and ambition differ. Our faces, finger prints and bodies differ too. Potentially and theoretically everybody can be equal. And theoretically Communism can be the most humane system of governance. We, however, do not live in an ideal world. Hence, the concept of equality is absurd as one can compare only apples with apples. You could, for example, say that one lawyer is better than the other lawyer in the field of intellectual property rights, but to assert that a top lawyer is better, equal or worse than a top athlete is simply stupid unless we can define a common, intelligent and universally acceptable denominator for comparison. Human beings due to their essentially uniqueness are difficult to compare in absolute terms. So, calling them equal is an easy and the wrong way out. In practical terms, everybody is not equal and everybody cannot be a good leader.

Moreover, good leadership is the result of wisdom gained over years and cannot be possibly taught in a three-day workshop. Practical corporate experience or an MBA can possibly help to develop it, but even that is not guaranteed. To cultivate leadership one needs courage, maturity, experience, strong beliefs, patience and the ability to rally people. There is no short-cut to leadership or to grow a company without a leader. He is always the starting point, whose mind and strength will ultimately shape the organization and its future.

I may also add that even Jim Collins was forced to recognize the need for a Level-5 leadership in his other book, Good to Great. The truth remains that only such a leader can create leaders and engineer a self-sustaining process that can carry a company far. A Level-5 leader is indispensable for building a visionary company, as is evident from all the examples given in both the books. Such leaders, like true Level-5 leaders, may shun publicity and die unknown. Nevertheless it does not eliminate the need or importance of such leaders because only such leaders are capable of building a visionary company and can also turn-around a normal company into a great one. Moreover, to assert that anybody can become such a leader is no different from saying that anybody can be Mr. Universe. The hard work, mental discipline and perseverance necessary for it are not laid out clearly enough, to the extent that the need of good leadership has been significantly played down. Without a gardener who sows the seeds properly and takes care of the sapling, chances of having a giant, fruit-bearing tree are downright difficult, if not impossible.