"Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies" is a very good book on what makes companies great, and a lot of the points echo this twitter thread, especially "cult-like culture".

It's also very interesting because quite a few of the "visionary companies" have failed in the 30 years since it was written.

Same with Good to Great (I think that was also written by the same guy). Some of those companies applauded are still doing well and others are embroiled in scandals of various sorts.

If I remember correctly, 'The Halo effect' by Rosenzweig has a pretty critical retrospective on these two books.

I had to read it for a leadership class. It had some great stories, but people overlook that the CEOs interviewed all said "luck" was a huge factor. So the rest of the book seemed like it was partly BS.

For example, Walgreens sold off their lucrative restaurant business and put all new stores in extremely high traffic areas and became the seller of not only prescriptions, but random things people need, but don't want to go to Walmart for. It paid off nicely, but it was extremely controversial at the time. They also didn't freak out when internet dotcom companies (set to take over the industry) popped up as they knew those competitors were missing the entire supply chain. Instead they took their time and automated things better to make customers happy in a different way like automated phone ordering. Was all of that genius, or luck. Maybe a bit of both. The same story with Barnes & Nobel and Amazon doesn't turn out so well.

I am really fascinated by the failure of Borders and the continued decline of Barnes & Noble. I'm not an expert but it feels like they really overextended themselves, diluted their focus and like you said, failed to leverage their position the way Walgreens did. But maybe the reason I feel that way is just that I spent a lot of time at the neigbhorhood B&N/Borders reading their books without buying anything other than the Starbucks coffee at the on-premise coffee shop. Can't say they managed to get much money out of me, but I think they provided an enormous service to the community.

One of the things I hate most about Covid. I used to go to B&N almost every weekend to browse and buy. I probably spent at least a thousand dollars there over the past decade and nearly $0 in 2020-21. Yes, it's a great service. I love libraries too, but B&N is better about newer books. Also a great Saturday morning out if you have a toddler. Amazon has the niche' books I like such a weird programming books, but the experience is missing. I also like just rummaging around until I find something unexpected that I like.