The Week in Meep: Built to Last, Sumo!, and the Baptism of the Lord

Time for action!

Just some handfuls of things out there today…

Built to Last…. 30+ Years Later

Back in 2014, I wrote an article on the business book Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies, which had been published in 1994. Stepping Stone, November 2014, “Business Classics: Built to Last”.

Ten years passed.

I decided to write about the book again.

Stepping Stone, Jan 2025: Business Classics Follow-Up: Built to Last

Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies, a business book demonstrating some classic research into success (or not) of publicly-traded companies, was published in 1994. But were their conclusions themselves built to last?

Authors James C. Collins and Jerry I. Porras covered the period Jan. 1, 1926 to Dec. 31, 1990 in stock market performance, and chose 18 companies from disparate industrial sectors they deemed “Built to Last” and paired them with 18 comparison companies from the same sectors. All were founded before 1950 to provide enough of a track record, so more recent companies such as Apple or Microsoft were necessarily excluded.

Let me cut to the chase: here is the comparison table I built: [It’s orange/red if it underperformed the S&P 500 for the period].

You may wonder why I quote Mystery Men at one point:

Mr. Furious : Okay, am I the only one who finds these sayings just a little bit formulaic? "If you want to push something down, you have to pull it up. If you want to go left, you have to go right." It's...

The Sphinx : Your temper is very quick, my friend. But until you learn to master your rage...

Mr. Furious : ...your rage will become your master? That's what you were going to say. Right? Right?

The Sphinx : Not necessarily.[5]

You can read the article. ;)

SUMO IS ON!

Yes, I know, again.

Over at my Sumo Stats substack, I updated the height/weight scatterplots:

Post Weigh-In January 2025 Banzuke Height-Weight Graphs

And, in particular, I looked at how the guys’ weight changed from the last weigh-in, in September 2024.

Yes, one guy gained 10 kg (22 pounds!) and one guy lost 7 kg (15 pounds). I’ve found the September to January interval to involve the largest weight swings, so far in my records.

Here are Don Don Sumo’s picks for the top 5 matches from today:

I think they’re good choices (I’m not sure I agree on the order). Don Don helps with understanding the moves & countermoves in the replays.

The Baptism of the Lord

Today is the official “end” of Christmastide, with a return to Ordinary Time in the Liturgical calendar next week.

So let me grab the artwork from the Met so we can enjoy!

Plaque with the Baptism of Jesus, South Netherlandish, ca 1150-75

Baptismal Basin, Mexican, ca 1800

Plate 8: the Baptism of Christ, Giuseppe Maria Mitelli Italian, After Francesco Albani Italian, Publisher Gioseffo Longhi Italian, 1678

Enjoy!