Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't | Jim Collins

Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't | Jim Collins | Get on the Bus

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Good to Great: Why...

	Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't Jim Collins Collins, 2001 - 300 pages average customer review:based on 674 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

The Challenge
Built to Last, the defining management study of the nineties, showed how great companies triumph over time and how long-term sustained performance can be engineered into the DNA of an enterprise from the verybeginning.

But what about the company that is not born with great DNA? How can good companies, mediocre companies, even bad companies achieve enduring greatness?

The Study
For years, this question preyed on the mind of Jim Collins. Are there companies that defy gravity and convert long-term mediocrity or worse into long-term superiority? And if so, what are the universal distinguishing characteristics that cause a company to go from good to great?

The Standards
Using tough benchmarks, Collins and his research team identified a set of elite companies that made the leap to great results and sustained those results for at least fifteen years. How great? After the leap, the good-to-great companies generated cumulative stock returns that beat the general stock market by an average of seven times in fifteen years, better than twice the results delivered by a composite index of the world's greatest companies, including Coca-Cola, Intel, General Electric, and Merck.

The Comparisons
The research team contrasted the good-to-great companies with a carefully selected set of comparison companies that failed to make the leap from good to great. What was different? Why did one set of companies become truly great performers while the other set remained only good?

Over five years, the team analyzed the histories of all twenty-eight companies in the study. After sifting through mountains of data and thousands of pages of interviews, Collins and his crew discovered the key determinants of greatness -- why some companies make the leap and others don't.

The Findings
The findings of the Good to Great study will surprise many readers and shed light on virtually every area of management strategy and practice. The findings include:

Level 5 Leaders: The research team was shocked to discover the type of leadership required to achieve greatness. The Hedgehog Concept (Simplicity within the Three Circles): To go from good to great requires transcending the curse of competence. A Culture of Discipline: When you combine a culture of discipline with an ethic of entrepreneurship, you get the magical alchemy of great results. Technology Accelerators: Good-to-great companies think differently about the role of technology. The Flywheel and the Doom Loop: Those who launch radical change programs and wrenching restructurings will almost certainly fail to make the leap.

?Some of the key concepts discerned in the study,? comments Jim Collins, "fly in the face of our modern business culture and will, quite frankly, upset some people.?

Perhaps, but who can afford to ignore these findings?

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How to go from good to great

I like the way 'Good to Great' outlines many corporate leadership attributes, especially discipline, which is rare these days. I can honestly say Mr Collins' book is helping my company go from OK-ordinary-good to great, as shown by our bottom line. Lately, I picked up the book by Norman Thomas Remick, '..Going Beyond Leadership of Character..', and I can honestly say it is already helping me, personally, to grow as a leader, and is the 'Good to Great' counterpart dealing, not with taking a business or corporation from OK-ordinary-good to great, but taking an individual from good to great in leadership. The Collins book is obviously the gold standard for companies, the Remick book is the new guy on the block for ambitious leaders of character.

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Get on the Bus

In one of the best examples of literature on paradigm shift thinking, Jim Collins writes a book that challenges the very core of organizational thinking and how companies function. At the very heart of the book is the premise that "Good is the enemy of great". Collins then provides examples of top companies that made a concerted effort to get beyond good and become great companies that have sustained growth for decades.

In order to go from good to great, Collins outlines an approach that all organizations need to go through. One major point of emphasis is to get the right people on the bus. This clever analogy is echoed throughout the book and points to the fact that in order to move an organization forward, that organization needs to have the right employees doing the right jobs and if they aren't move them around until they are.

Another fascinating concept that Collins introduces is the Hedgehog Concept. Collins describes this process in three very important questions that all organizations need to answer. What are you deeply passionate about? What can you be the best in the world at? What drives your economic engine? Finding the answers to these questions ultimately will lead an organization to the flywheel of success or the doom loop.

Overall, Jim Collins has created a masterful design in paradigm shift thinking. In order to change an organization, a shift from the present paradigms to ones that are permeating on the edge needs to take place. In order to do this, the right people need to be on the bus and the paradigm needs to contribute to your organization being the best in the world at something. If not, an organization might continue to be good, but will never be great.

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Good to Great is Great

This book challenges every business, school, and organization to uncover the reasons why we settle for "good enough" instead of great. As a school administrator willing to search and push for continuous improvement, I have kept this book close by. The author Jim Collins, with his research team uses data from successful organizations to support the belief that any organization can substantially improve its performance to the point of becoming great. The good to great ideas presented are straightforward, conclusive with great realistic strategies, and well supported with data. Among their findings are 1) Level 5 Leadership: It all starts with a leader who possesses personal humility and professional will, 2) First Who...Then What: Any organization must get the right people on the bus first before it moves forward 3) Confront the Brutal Facts: An organization must objectively look at the current reality through examination of the facts. 4) Hedgehog Concept: A very simple concept that any organization must find its core, and be the best in the world around that core. 5) A Culture of Discipline: Disciplined people and disciplined thought bring disciplined action and greater performance. 6) Technology Accelerators: Technology can take a significant role in helping an organization transform to greatness. I believe that any organization can make a conscious choice to follow "Good to Great" concepts and after time, see itself accomplish a breakthrough similar to what Collins illustrates with a sustainable momentum similar to a heavy flywheel.

Greg Tiemann
Assistant Principal
Millard North High School

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Great leadership insight

This book outlined many areas of leadership especially in the area of discipline which I find the most telling. His matrix of creative discipline is particularly insightful for anyone looking to improve their leadership skills in a team environment.

It was good, not great.

I bought this because I have to read this for a class and wanted to listen to it in the car while on the road. This is definitely a "must read" for anyone that has aspirations of becoming a top level manager. It is very inspirational. The difficult part is trying to make the changes necessary to become great. Very thought provoking.

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