Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don't Hardcover – Unabridged, October 16, 2001

A wonderful anthology on the right and necessary steps a growing concern must continue to take if they are to remain viable in todays society and ready for the future.. As a CEO, you must be above the fray of everyday operations and keep a keen eye on the future and potential innovations. For example, when Sears gave up the catalog in the early 1990's, the potential of the internet was just beginning to raise its capacity to greatly influence a new way of doing business. If the Sears executives had not been so busy trying to save a buck and give up the catalog, maybe it could have retained its millions of dedicated shoppers and innovated along the lines of the internet that we know today as Amazon.

Bezos, of Amazon, was a hedge fund manager in the late 1980's. How did he become some a relevant whole seller with a revolutionary way of delivery in the late 90's. This is the clear message that I got from Good To Great. You must be willing to boldly assault the future and at the same time question if this is the right way to go. That way your organizations will not become complacent and our managerial core will be a group of activists and futurists. That's how you keep going from Great To Even Greater. Good To Great is fine. But now you must take the next step.

Below are a few of Collins' finding he shared with us in his Good to Great.

“A Hedgehog Concept is not a goal to be the best, as strategy to be the best, an intention to be the best, a plan to be the best. It is an understanding of what you can be the best at.”

1. What you can be the best in the world at
2. What drives your economic engine
3. What you are deeply passionate about

And concept of technology accelerator:
“The good-to-great companies used technology as an accelerator of momentum, not a creator of it. None of the good-to-great companies began their transformations with pioneering technology, yet they all became pioneers in the application of technology once they grasped how it fit with their three circles and after they hit breakthrough.”

The most fascinating concept, however, is a concept, which is cornerstone of any greatness and is depicted as ‘the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus.’ If we can explain and understand ‘what’ before ‘why’, it puts the company and leaders on the right track to greatness:

“Stop and think about it for a minute. What do the right people want more than almost anything else? They want to be part of a winning team. They want to contribute to producing visible, tangible results.”

Continue reading at www.alwayskeepgrowing.com

This book has been on my list for quite a while and now I'm kicking myself for waiting so long! Jim Collins and his team provide some fantastic insights that aren't just based upon a popular fad opinion, but are actually backed up by studies.

If you are a leader or desire to be one, this is a must read. He speaks to much more than just trends, but to actual character. As a fairly charismatic person, I found it interesting to see some of the downsides of charisma. I really appreciated his approach to discussing the power of clarity and consistency.

Now that I've read the book, I see it's themes running through so many other books like, "Start With Why". This is a classic and I can not recommend it highly enough.

Good to Great by Jim Collins is a compelling and informative book about how to be successful, and how to stay successful. The theme of success is shown through 11 companies who start out less or equal to share-market value, then sky rocket to a substantial increase becoming a “great” company, which in terms of Collins, at least three times the market over a consistent span of 15 years. By using a consistent level of market value increase as an indicator for success, the word “Great” used in this book has minimal bias and maximum meaning to the word itself; it’s not just someone’s opinion of just saying, ‘Oh yeah. My company is great!’ This book was written in 2001, so in between then and 2017, there are a few companies that decline from greatness after being written and proclaimed great in this book; I am very interested to see why some of Collins’ companies that were great, turn back into mediocre and bankrupt companies. Although there are some failed companies after being deemed great, the credibility and accuracy of the results found within Collins’ research remain true.
This book is very well laid out, divided into easy to follow chapters that flow one right into the other; I found myself reading over 20 pages at a time without noticing until I took a break! Collins establishes the framework of success through three stages known as: disciplined people, disciplined thought, and disciplined action. Within each of these stages comes two key concepts that build off of each other: Level 5 Leadership, First Who Then What, Confront the Brutal Facts, The Hedgehog Concept, Culture of Discipline, and Technology Accelerators.
Collins does not shy away from starting off strong in his book, saying “Greatness is not a function of circumstance. Greatness, it turns out, is largely a matter of conscious choice” (pg. 11). I found this quote profound because I believe that in order to make something more than just mediocre, one must be in an above-mediocre mindset. As an Industrial Engineer, I feel the need to have this mindset of greatness, in order to not only make a product, system, or company good, but GREAT. There are multiple layers found within this book where I could relate many of these proposed tools for a great company into using these tools to gauge for a great life. Even if you are not an Industrial Engineer, or any type of engineer for the matter, not an entrepreneur striving for success, not a CEO of a business trying to take a leap of faith into a huge growth of progress, I believe this book is still a GREAT read for any person! There are numerous lessons within this book that can be relatable to not only business, but everyday life. There is a whole chapter dedicated to figuring out who the right people should be going along with a company, then figuring out where to go with the company; First Who Then What. The First Who Then What shows why setting the correct priorities in any situation is important, and can be related to everyday life by knowing who to let into your life that will help you grow, and who to let go of; once you have the right “team” in your life, then you can figure out What you want to accomplish. Once the tools of greatness has been addressed, Collins completes his book by encouraging the reader to find greatness in all parts of one’s life; “As your work moves to greatness, so does your life,” (pg. 210).
For these reasons already stated, I would highly recommend others to adapt a culture of discipline (also a main idea from the book) to read and get acquainted with Good to Great and keep their passions and lives GREAT.