Ten Characteristics of Great Companies

While this blog is dedicated to freelancing, I thought the following is interesting enough that I should post it here. I'm sure a few of the bullet points are familiar to all of the freelancers who at one point or another have worked in the corporation and have had strong feelings about what a great company is and/or should be. The article is by a well known tech VC in NYC:

http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2009/09/ten-characteristics-of-great-companies.html

1) Great companies are constantly innovating and delighting their customers/users with new products and services.
2) Great companies are built to last and be independent and sustainable. Great companies don't sell out.
3) Great companies make lots of money but leave even more money on the table for their users and partners.
4) Great companies don't look elsewhere for ideas. They develop their ideas internally and are copied by others.
5) Great companies infect their users/customers with their brand. They turn their users and customers into marketing/salesforces.
6) Great companies are led by entrepreneurs who own a meaningful piece of the business. As such, they make decisions based on long term business needs and objectives not short term goals.
7) Great companies have a global mindset. They treat every person in the world as a potential customer/user.
8) Great companies are attempting to change the world in addition to making money.
9) Great companies are not reliant on any one person to deliver their value proposition.
10) Great companies put the customer/user first above any other priority.

One of the points, #4 is "Great companies don't look elsewhere for ideas. They develop their ideas internally and are copied by others." But what about companies that have grown so huge, that they seek innovation primarily through acquisitions? We've seen this pattern over and over throughout the ages. Microsoft, Yahoo, and even Google. When a company no longer innovates and takes risks like it used to in its early days, does that mean it's no longer a great company?

Let's look at point #6 "Great companies are led by entrepreneurs who own a meaningful piece of the business. As such, they make decisions based on long term business needs and objectives not short term goals." Wait a minute. I've been at big companies, and every quarter, it is about the bottom line. It's always about "What can we do this quarter to drive up revenue?" What does that say?

Point #9 "Great companies are not reliant on any one person to deliver their value proposition." What about Apple, an example of one single person who delivers products that are consistent and high uncompromising qualities?