A peek into the workings of a compelling transformation

books:

	• Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't Jim Collins HarperBusiness, 2001 - 300 pages average customer review:based on 830 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Revolutionary Business Book

I'll start by saying that I did NOT like some of Jim Collins' other books (Build to Last and How the Mighty Fall). These other books either went to popular companies and asked them why they were great (they weren't that great and they didn't know anyway) or they looked at failed companies and tried to apply preconceived notions on why they failed (they failed to get to the root problems). Having said all of that...

Good to Great is the best business book of the decade.

The concepts are so profound and simple... and represent a paradigm shift in business theory. Great leaders are humble, common, and you've never heard of most of them. Start with getting the right people on the bus and in the right seats. Great companies know their "Hedgehog" including what they are best at, passionate about, and what drives resources to them. As for technology, it is a tactic that can support the great purpose (but not BE the purpose). Incredibly powerful!

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Good to Great Review

Jim Collins' Good to Great doesn't just tell you how companies go from good to great, but he provides the reader with hard evidence that opens up thought provoking discussion that ultimately leaves the final conclusions up to them. Much of this study was compiled from company history, stock share information, and interviews with actual executives. We are presented with comparisons of great companies and their comparable counterparts, from which we can pick apart their differences of what ultimately allowed one company to dominate in their respective field. The key events of history and the breakdown of trends across the great companies led to Collins and his team to generalize the leadership and cultures of each company that makes them great. These key points learned from great companies are applicable for any company and were highly insightful as well. I felt this was an easy to follow study and highly recommend reading it no matter what industry you are working in.

I felt that Collins organized his study very well which was especially helpful in comparing such a wide range of great companies from different industries. I felt this was key in what makes this book appealing to people of any industry because we learn from each one. Collins presents his study of great companies from their buildup to breakthrough so we can really see what allowed them to break free from average which is where most companies are left behind. He then defines three areas which are disciplined people, disciplined thought and disciplined action, all which contribute in defining the culture of a company. It is this culture of the company that sets them apart from the average and allows them to be great and that culture is what Collins breaks down and presents to us. Each chapter essentially covers a different area that falls within these categories but he does a great job of tying it all together.

Some of the main points we get from this study are the characteristics of great leadership, also known as level 5 leadership, how companies should stick to a hedgehog concept or do what they can be best at and care about most, the discipline thoughts and use of technology to act in ways that help achieve their hedgehog concept, and how great companies face brutal facts and know what they are actually capable of. All these components were related to each other in a very integrative way which is what added to the simplicity of this book. It really creates a new philosophy about running a business in terms of the culture of the company defined here.

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Good to Great... Great read!

Good to Great by Jim Collins overall was an excellent read. The concepts described in the book were very thorough but became repetitive in some of the middle chapters. The repetition became dull at times, but Collins would come right back with something more interesting. The analogies used were excellent because it gave the reader a clear understanding of each concept. My favorite part was when he described the bus concept and how to pick the right people for that bus. He definitely came up with unique ideas on how to illustrate what he was trying to say.
Although he chose certain companies that would be great in a 15 year span, a company today, Circuit City, is out of business. This could have possibly occurred due to the lack of keeping up the concepts of the book. Some of the concepts that Circuit City possibly weren't consistent with could have been the level 5 leadership concept. Collins heavily emphasizes the importance of level 5 leadership. I would agree that this concept is important and should be included in every type of business. I enjoyed how he did not describe this concepts as common sense and gave the reader a clearer and more fun understanding.
Another thing to appreciate about this book would be the detailed charts that would show the success in the good-to-great companies versus the comparison companies. This definitely came me an idea of how much the company really gained success with the concepts of hedgehog, level 5 leadership, culture of discipline, flywheel, and other.
If you are looking for ideas on how to become a great company, I suggest reading this book for the excellent concepts that seem possible for every company.

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Collins Lingo Redux

At a CEO Dialogues roundtable recently, leaders recommended their favorite books--or recently read books. The list and variety is always intriguing. Usually, it's the recommender, not the title, that causes me to succumb to Amazonitis. I've noticed that smart people remain smart by reading smart books.

But...what really got my attention that day was the recommendation from a CEO. She had just re-read Jim Collins' masterpiece, Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap...and Others Don't (2001). Someone permanently borrowed my original, underlined copy, so I noticed that my new copy's header proclaims, "#1 Bestseller - 2 Million Copies Sold." It's still relevant.

So this CEO's insight got me thinking: How many of your younger team members have joined your organization--but have never read Built to Last, Good to Great, or How the Mighty Fall? If you're in the nonprofit or church arena, at the very least, have your direct reports (and boss or board chair) read the 36-page monograph, Good to Great and the Social Sectors.

Is it possible that you often throw around Collins lingo--and some team members nod knowingly, while others feign understanding? Can they finish the paragraph when you talk about a Good to Great or Built to Last concept?
--The Hedgehog Concept
--Clock Building, Not Time Telling
--Level 5 Leadership
--BHAG
--The Bus
--The Stockdale Paradox
--Greatness at the Cleveland Orchestra
--The Flywheel
--The 3 Circles: Passion, Competence and Your Economic Engine (and what is different in the social sector)

Collins says, "The moment you think of yourself as great, your slide toward mediocrity will have already begun." Do your vision and mission statements trumpet arrogance or humility? "Greatness is not a function of circumstance," adds Collins. "Greatness, it turns out, is largely a matter of conscious choice, and discipline."

Conduct an informal Collins poll in the hallway or break room. Perhaps it's time to heed my CEO friend's wisdom to read it again and inspire others to read Collins for the first time.

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A peek into the workings of a compelling transformation

The book "Good to Great" can be summarized as a research project conducted by a team of 21 individuals over five years with the motivation of uncovering a transformation that takes a company from the scale of mediocrity, to that of greatness. While the main objective of their findings applies towards a fortune 500 company, many of the concepts described can be applied to almost every aspect of daily life and to almost any individual.

Some of the concepts that really stand out in the text pertain to leadership qualities, discipline, company culture, and choosing the right people for the company. The book coins several terms such as "Level 5 leadership" and "The Hedgehog Concept." In an effort to describe the basics of these concepts without diluting their meaning, a "Level 5 Leader" is a person that is characterized by having a paradoxical mix of rigor and determination to lead an organization without letting the temptation of arrogance creep into their portfolio. The "Hedgehog Concept" can be thought of as one of the central engines that each of the Good to Great companies constantly referred to when making the crucial decisions needed to make the transformation to greatness. In a sense, the Hedgehog concept was an understanding by the company of what they could be the best at.

The most fascinating aspect of this book really lies in the fact that all of these concepts and ideas formulated by the author and his team were developed not out of opinion, but from empirical data and endless interviews and structured research methods. Any individual from a college student to a CEO of a large organization will no doubt find value in the findings of this book whether it be to improve ones own life, or take a sneek peek into the workings of what it takes to bring a company to the stature of greatness.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

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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