“At the end of every day of every year, two things remain unshakable, our constancy of purpose and our continuous discontent with the immediate present.” — Roberto Goizueta

IBM founder Thomas Watson remarked, “If an organization is to meet the challenges of a changing world, it must be prepared to change everything about itself except its basic philosophy of doing business.”

Jim Collins articulates this principle as “preserve the core and stimulate progress“. He writes, “A visionary company doesn’t simply balance between preserving a tightly held core ideology and stimulating vigorous change and movement; it does both to an extreme.”

The Bottom Line: Leaders build their enterprise around an unchangeable core ideology, and are prepared and willing to change everything but that core ideology.