Preserve the Core & Stimulate Progress

WHAT:

This week in class we read Chapter 9 in Good To Great, by Jim Collins. One of the most important ideas in the chapter I think is the notion of preserving your core ideology is a central feature of enduring great companies. However it is not enough to just preserve the key concept of your business, you must also stimulate progress within your company. The book illustrates this idea with the story of Walt Disney. Collins describes how Disney went through dramatic changes over the years - from cartoons to full-length animations, from The Mickey Mouse Club to the amusement park business. The important point here is that through all of these changes the company still strongly embraced its consistent set of core values including "passionate belief in creative imagination, fanatic attention to detail, and preservation of the "Disney Magic."

SO WHAT:

The success of the Disney business illustrates the importance of the idea of preserving your core values while still stimulating progress. Although Disney made an extreme jump from The Mickey Mouse Club to Disney World amusement parks, the company remained successful because people were still able to identify with the Disney brand and saw the new amusement parks as a way for Disney to still instill happiness in children.

NOW WHAT:

I think that after reading this chapter, I really understand the importance of embracing your core ideology while still stimulating progress. After switching my major a total of SIX times throughout my college career, I finally made a decision on what I wanted to focus on in my professional career: IT consulting. While it may sound a bit dry to most, I feel like I can really excel in this area of business. How does this have anything to do with this blog post? I am going to do my best not to stray from this area of profession because I know it is what I want to do. I guess you could call it my Hedgehog Concept in a way.