Our findings do not represent a quick fix, or the next fashion statement in a long string of management fads, or the next buzzword of the day, or a new 'program' to introduce. No! The only way to make any company visionary is through a long-term commitment to an eternal process of building the organization to preserve the core and stimulate progress.

Good-to-great companies set their goals and strategies based on understanding; comparison companies set their goals and strategies based on bravado.

A visionary company doesn't simply balance between idealism and profitability: it seeks to be highly idealistic and highly profitable.

If you have more than three priorities then you don't have any.

Start a 'Stop Doing' list. I'll leave it as an existential dilemma on whether to put that task on your To Do list

The best CEOs in our research display tremendous ambition for their company combined with the stoic will to do whatever it takes, no matter how brutal (within the bounds of the company's core values), to make the company great. Yet at the same time they display a remarkable humility about themselves, ascribing much of their own success to luck, discipline and preparation rather than personal genius.

An organization is not truly great, if it cannot be great without you.