Centennials

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What to expect

Brought to you by Penguin.

Start-ups rarely survive their second birthday. Even established firms in the UK and the US average a life of only fifteen years. So how can your company build and sustain success for decades to come?

Professor Alex Hill has conducted seven years of groundbreaking research into a clutch of organisations that have outperformed their peers for over 100 years - from NASA to the New Zealand All Blacks, from Eton College and the Royal College of Arts to the Royal Marines and the Royal Shakespeare Company. And what he has found is that these very different organisations all share remarkably similar strategies when it comes to building and maintaining excellence and success - strategies that frequently fly in the face of conventional business wisdom.

Here Professor Hill shares the twelve traits that have set these organisations apart for over a century, from the way they analyse success and failure to their approach to finding the best people and the brightest new ideas. In so doing, he identifies the strategies and habits that you can employ in your company to create a strong and stable core and to ensure the same long-term prosperity. In short, he shows you how to build a promising enterprise into an enduring, great organisation.

©2023 Professor Alex Hill (P)2023 Penguin Audio

Critics Review

An instant classic.

Charles Handy, author of 'The Empty Raincoat' and 'The Second Curve'

If you want to know why some businesses succeed beyond expectation and others incomprehensibly fail, the answer is here. Every CEO should be given a copy with their morning coffee.

Robin Dunbar, Professor of Evolutionary Psychology at the University of Oxford

Most people think in straight lines. A leads to B. Alex thinks sideways, and comes up with intuitions few will spot, but which are obvious and readily applicable. That is what makes this book both useful, and a joy to read.

Tim Leunig, former economic adviser to the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer

Brilliantly clear, concise and readable. Both a window into centennial organisations and an incredibly helpful strategic toolkit for sustaining and developing them.

Lucy Skilbeck, Director of Actor Training at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art

If you want to learn what it takes to achieve truly sustainable success in an organisation, then this is a book for you. The examples of organisations which have stood the test of time and, frankly, those which haven’t, are illuminating because of the fundamental features which Alex has uncovered. This book will be of value to not just those who are contemplating setting up a new venture, but also to those who are temporary custodians of existing great organisations and whose ultimate goal must surely be to add value.

Shaun Fitzgerald, OBE, Director of the Centre for Climate Repair at the University of Cambridge

Centennials is an entertaining and thought-provoking exploration of a central idea of leadership; how to effectively balance stability with innovation and change. The core principles of this book have added positively to my work since I first came across Alex and his research. The concepts captured within Centennials are brought to life with simple clarity and real world engaging stories and I would recommend any leader add this to their library.

Michael Bourne, Performance Director at the Lawn Tennis Association

Professor Hill brings his deep knowledge of organisational structures and a brilliantly perceptive eye to a number of the leading organisations in the UK and beyond, organisations that are leaders in their area and have sustained that success over many years – in some cases, for centuries. The result is a remarkable book that is full of satisfying insights, from the elegant (stable core, disruptive edge) to the unfashionable (get better, not bigger) to the surprising (make time for random). Centennials has made me see an organisation that I thought I knew very well with fresh eyes.

Jonnie Noakes, Director of Teaching and Learning at Eton College

I enjoyed Centennials a great deal. I believe Alex has captured some simple principles that can allow individuals, teams, organisations and beyond to navigate complexity in a manner which brings purpose, stability and evolution. It’s a text I will keep returning to!

Danny Kerry, MBE, former head coach of the Great Britain Women's Olympic Hockey Team

Centennials brilliantly draws on over a decade’s worth of insight to capture many of the vital elements that distinguish sustainable success. Anyone looking for an engaging way to stimulate deep reflection in order to create purposeful, long-term success should read this book.

Ian Robinson, Deputy Director of Strategy and Operational Excellence, UK Sport

If you want your organisation to be a success for the next 100 years and beyond I suggest you read this.

Steve Harrison, Project Manager at the Scottish Government

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