Organizations then do have inherent strengths they can build on to stay agile enough to be learning organizations over the long-term. There are core attributes of their business models that force agility, make reliance on passionate people very necessary (as is the case in service industries), and continually reinforce a culture of being externally focused and willing to risk new strategies in serving their existing customers and earning new ones.

Organizations have varying degrees of ability in rising to the challenge of becoming a learning organization. For those organizations who are managed by patriarchal and often myopic founders...

Yet for those CEOs and founders willing and focused on their legacy being the financial, personal, and professional growth of their employees, their organizations are always learning, always growing, mainly because the CEO sees their legacy not in turning the company into a monument but in making a learning organization spring to life to create a launch pad for its committed and passionate employees.