Whats the most surprising lesson from the book?
That the founding myths of an organization often outlive their usefulness. Dismantling myth is a perilous process. Charles Schwab & Co. prided itself on four founding standards: serving the average investor, no advice, no cold calling, no commission-paid brokers. In its desire to recreate itself as a full-service brokerage, Schwab is systematically abandoning three of the four principles on which it was established. Can the emerging myths that replace those it leaves behind summon anywhere near the organizing power of the original founding myths? It’s a messy process, this myth business. A company manipulates its own identity when it tinkers with its myths, however necessary that becomes.