Built To Last is another awesome book I read in the recent past. One of the interesting terms coined by the authors is "Big Hairy Audacious Goals "(BHAGs). Research done by the authors reveal that outstanding visionary companies usually have a tendency to take up BHAGs at certain points, and they strive to reach it, with all their might, and a single minded focus. Examples abound - Boeing's stubborn pursual of the 747 and IBM's 360 mainframe investments - both of these huge projects, if they failed would have probably destroyed the companies. From personal experience, SUN Microsystems is another company which believed in "All the wood behind one arrow", as we called it at SUN. Prolonged bleeding, I think has made SUN much less of a visionary company than it was, a few years back - and it would be interesting to know, whether BHAGs on which to bet the company is still the norm there - I doubt it.