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The Persistence Project

Discovering the causes of superior corporate performance

Trying to understand what makes great companies great is the defining quest of popular management research. Sadly, like the quests of great literature – from the grail to the fleece – the search seems endless. Even the most famous and influential efforts at uncovering the causes of enduring success have of late been knocked off their pedestals, and often for good reason. Why should we bother even to try?

Well, if George Mallory wanted to climb Everest because it was there, then, following Thomas Berger, we determined to try our hand at the recipe for persistent superior performance precisely because it isn’t there.

To make any progress, we recognize we’ll have to try a different approach. We’ve begun with advances in statistical techniques to define a unique sample. You can read more about that in our monograph, A Random Search for Excellence.

But there’s more. We’d like to make our research method as transparent and our analysis as collaborative as possible. So you can watch our thinking evolve here, or, better yet, you can get involved in shaping it along the way. Thanks for joining the conversation.

Featured Insights

  • Welcome to The Persistence Project
    Learn more about the research.
  • A Random Search for Excellence
    Separating fable from fact in studies of high performance.
  • Participate in The Persistence Project
    Every couple months, we’ll share our latest research on our blog. Join the dialogue.

Get Started

  • ExternalURL Article: Are “Great” Companies Just Lucky?
    A Harvard Business Review feature.
  • ExternalURL In the News: The 7 Secrets of Really, Really Lucky Companies
    A recent article in the Boston Globe
  • Article: You Should Be So Lucky - Think Good Skills Determine Corporate Performance?
    A feature from Conference Board Review.
  • Profile: Meet the Authors
    The voices behind Persistence.
  • Book: The Strategy Paradox
    by Michael Raynor.

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