Enduring success

What separates businesses that thrive for generations from those that fade? Christian Stadler set out to answer this by leading a six-year research project with a team of eight. They examined nine European firms that have operated for over a century and beaten the market handily across the last half-century. Some readers will ask why the focus is on Europe. The region holds a large share of the world's oldest major corporations, including half of the Fortune Global 500 firms that are at least a century old, and 72 of the 100 oldest family businesses.

The book works as a successor to Collins and Porras' Built to Last, published about fifteen years earlier. Stadler brings in newer findings from management research and offers the first perspective on lasting success that comes from outside the United States. His central conclusion is that the most enduring companies stay adaptable in a shifting environment by being carefully conservative, which runs against common expectations.

Rather than telling stories alone, the book organizes its lessons into a framework of five principles and practical concepts. It is written for business leaders who want to draw lessons from the histories of some of the world's most durable institutions.