What are the common Cultural Traits of Visionary companies?

Collins and Porras in 'Built to Last' explain  what great companies do to maintain their cultures, which they describe as cult-like.

1. The cultures in visionary companies are not soft or undisciplined:
"Because visionary companies have such clarity about who they are, what they're all about, and what they are trying to achieve, they tend not to have much room for people unwilling or unsuited to their demanding standards."
2. Visionary companies are not great places to work, at least not for everyone. If you can't embrace their ideology, they expel you like a virus. If you do not fit their practices, they will weed you out in the hiring process or shortly thereafter.
3. Cult-like cultures are key to preserving the core ideology of a company.
4. Visionary companies have these characteristics about their culture that are cult-like:
1. Fervently held ideology
2. Indoctrination
3. Tightness of fit
4. Elitism
5. Visionary companies create these cultures through practical, concrete things:
1. Orientation and training programs
2. Internal universities
3. On-the-job socialization with peers and immediate supervisors
4. Rigorous up-through-the-ranks policies such as promoting from within, and hiring young people and shaping their minds from the start.
5. Exposure to pervasive myths of heroic deeds
6. Corporate songs, cheers, etc.
7. Tight screening practices; hiring and removal in first few years
8. Incentives and advancement are closely linked to core ideology
9. Awards, contests and public recognition are closely linked to core ideology
10. Tolerance for honest mistakes, but severe penalties or termination for breaching core ideology
6. These cult-like cultures succeed because they are balanced by mechanisms to stimulate progress, e.g., taking on challenging tasks (Big Hairy Audacious Goals or BHAGs).
7. Adhering to a small set of core beliefs allows these companies to grant a good deal of operational autonomy.
 

 
• Insights from Built to Last. By Collins and Porras.
The authors conclude: "It means that companies seeking an 'empowered' or decentralized work environment should first and foremost impose a tight ideology screen and indoctrinate people into that ideology, eject the viruses, and give those that remain the tremendous sense of responsibility that comes with being a member of an elite organization. It means getting the right actors on the stage, putting them in the right frame of mind, and then giving them the freedom to ad lib as they see fit."