Beyond Entrepreneurship Turning Your Business Into an Enduring Great Company

If you head a small to mid-sized enterprise or one within a larger firm, here is a remarkable book that can help you build an extraordinary organization capable of long-term health and success. Beyond Entrepreneurship shows how to turn your business into an entity that "sustains high performance, rises to the status of role model, and remains great for generations," in the words of the authors. Step by step, Collins and Lazier reveal how to lay a foundation for greatness, while a company is still small and adaptable enough to fully embody the values of its leaders. Drawing on their many years of first-hand experience working in private industry and serving as business consultants, Collins and Lazier cover all the essential aspects of attaining corporate greatness--supported by dozens of real-life examples of firms as diverse as Mrs. Fields Cookies, Continental Cablevision, and Giro Sport Design. In Beyond Entrepreneurship they provide tested ideas and methods for developing the most effective leadership style for your personality characteristics... and developing the 7 key elements of a leadership style to inspire real loyalty and dedication. Then, they move on to an often overlooked function of leadership: catalyzing a vision. Every great company has at its core a compelling vision. You'll discover a clear and useful framework for setting corporate vision--a framework that removes the confusion about this important and elusive topic, yet retains the "spark" that's an essential quality of a motivating and effective overall vision. Collins and Lazier also discuss and illustrate the four key principles of setting business strategy, and explain how to resolve critical strategic issues--like whether to lead a market or follow--faced by every small to mid-sized firm. The authors present a set of concepts and practical suggestions for stimulating creativity and keeping your company innovative as it evolves. Finally, they spell out how to translate vision and strategy into effective business tactics, the day-to-day details of producing consistent excellence. Here is a comprehensive, how-to-do-it blue print for becoming the best in your industry; crafting an entity that's highly profitable and respected by people outside its walls.