Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap...And Others Don't

One of the best books I ve ever read. Every business person should read it and practice its principles. I recommend it.

Jim Collins states in his book, "Good is the enemy of great. And that is one of the key reasons why we have so little that become great...We believe that almost any organization can substantially improve its stature and performance, perhaps even become great, if it conscientiously applies the frame work of ideas we've uncovered." After reading that statement I became very curious and wanting to continue reading to see what are the components that make a good company to be a great company, in hopes of maybe being apply it myself one day I really enjoyed the way in which Collins organized the book. From his five year research study of 28 different companies Good to Great discusses key critical concepts revealed through his studies as to why some companies became successful great companies, while the others continued to be good. Collins found from his research within a great company you will have discipline people, with discipline thought, drives discipline actions. Within each discipline it is broken down into a subset of two components:I. Discipline Peoplea. Level 5 Leadershipb. First Who... Then WhatII. Discipline Thoughta. Confront the Brutal factsb. Hedgehog ConceptsIII. Discipline Actiona. Culture of Disciplineb. Technology AcceleratorsI believe by organizing the book in this matter enabled me to really understand the severity of the critical components and how their relationships if applied will in allow a good company to become a great company. Starting with Discipline People, Collins conducted and analyzed his research by introducing the types of leaders you would find in a great company versus those in a just a good company and the characteristics that these great leaders possessed, such as humility and will. They lead with the interest of the company and not for their own selfish reasoning. Next was the First Who ...Then what which discuss getting the right people on board and the wrong people out. Collins states, "People are not your most important assets. The right people are." Collins stresses the importance of first getting the right people in the right places in your company and weeding out the wrong and then figure out where your company wants to go.Next is the Discipline Thought, within the subset of discipline thought a company must possess the ability to confront the brutal facts and not live in denial. Being able to do this will allow the company to stay updated and proactive when faced with making decisions. Collins presented a methodology for the companies to be able to face the truth. He says an organization must lead with questions not answers, engage in dialogue and debate, and use the "red flag mechanism" where anything that is red flagged is information that cannot be ignored and must be handled immediately. Collins also mentioned under the category of discipline thought is the Hedgehog Concept. The Hedgehog Concept is about a Fox and Hedgehog, where the Fox (good companies) knows a lot about variety of things whereas the Hedgehog (great companies) knew a lot about one thing. Being hedgehog is more beneficial for both the company and the individual because it the clarity drives focus and direction whereas the fox has neither one direction nor focus which can backfire later down the road.Lastly, having discipline people with discipline thoughts will drive to discipline action which uses the culture of discipline and technology as another tool to help transform the company from good to great. Collins also refers to the Flywheel Concept. He says that a good to great company never happens all at once it take a lot of effort and time to get it going, like the flywheel. The flywheel requires a lot of pushing to get it to turn and after x amount of time it will begin to gain momentum.Throughout the book Collins gives great examples for each discipline and its component and how it either went from good to great or continued to be good. Along with the examples Collins provides pleather of diagrams and charts in the appendix, which becomes a great reference for the reader and creates a better understanding of what is needed to go from a good company to a great company. Generally the book is a very easy read which makes it that much more interesting to want to apply to your company or even for yourself. It takes the feeling of the impossible away, like Collin stated, "We believe that almost any organization can substantially improve its stature and performance, perhaps even become great, if it conscientiously applies the frame work of ideas we've uncovered." Overall if you are looking to transform your company, Good to Great is a read that I highly recommend.

Cut to the Chase:A well-written synopsis of 11 “great” companies and some of their similar characteristics, this is a fun, quick read that is great in terms of party trivia and information… but it’s tougher to judge if you’re looking for more of a business how-to. Partially, it has aged poorly — many of the companies selected have since had meltdowns of epic proportions (for example: Fannie Mae, Circuit City), and the “how to” part of the book feels generalized and far more subjective than the methodology/selection criteria would have you believe. Still, you’ll learn quite a few fun facts about how some of these business started and/or converted to become the giants they are today.Greater Detail:The main premise of this book is that though there are many very successful, long-lasting corporations out there (Coca Cola, GE, etc), there are a handful of companies that transcend just long-lasting durability, and become truly “great” companies. The selection criteria (mostly explained in the appendices) identified 11 “great” companies out of 1,435 analyzed, mostly via things like stock performance (the companies chosen were at about market average for about 15 years, and then jumped to being about seven times better than market over a period of 15 years, hence the title: good to great).The idea was to then take a more in-depth look at the 11 companies to see what similarities existed, and to then compile kind of a how-to in terms of what distinguishes the greats. Some of the ideas explored are things like:1. The Level 5 Leader — Collins proposes the idea of a leadership hierarchy of skills; a Level 5 leader is a dual personality of sorts — someone who is basically modest, but willful and stubborn, almost introverted and shy, but simultaneously fearless (this is kind of the opposite of say the CEO-centric view where Apple was in part defined by Steve Jobs as a leader and a personality, Bill Gates by Microsoft, etc). He argues that the Level 5 leader is someone who does what’s in the best interests of the company — no matter what (preparing for crises before they happen, sacrificing part of their lives often, etc). Counter examples given are leaders who so define the role that they’re unable to appoint successors, or have a successful successor — the argument here is about systematic management, filling the role that the company needs, for the good of the company, and almost without personal ego.2. The Flywheel and the Doom Loop — Even though the media sometimes portrays changes as though they’re instantaneously effective or immediately impactful, in reality, most companies that are successful slowly build momentum via a flywheel effect, constantly confronting the “brutal” truths and having faith that with discipline and continued effort and momentum, a breakthrough will happen. The Doom Loop is when there is a lack of patience that leads to continued cycles of new leaders, new directions, and new innovations, without ever waiting to see something through.3. The Hedgehog Concept — This is the concept of doing one thing really, really well. Here the argument is that you don’t have to be the best at everything, that Walgreens became a great company by getting rid of its restaurants (it had over 500 at one point) and focusing on what it was strongest in — being a convenient drug store. It focused on location, location, location (always being on a corner, for example), offering 24-hour pharmacies, flu shots, expanding into poorer neighborhoods, and being an almost pervasively convenient option for its customers. It basically asks companies to think about what they can really be best at and specialize a little, find something they are passionate about that they can truly excel at.As I’ve said, it’s an interesting read. and in terms of things to make you think, there’s a lot of good cocktail party fodder — is it better to have an invisible leader who sacrifices everything for their company? Or is there benefit to having a targeted leader to focus on (the Zuckerbergs and Jobses, leaders who are synonymous with a company’s image). But if you’re reading it now, more than a decade after its initial publication, it’s hard to take it as seriously when it talks about Fannie Mae (which has gone through a federal takeover/bailout) or Circuit City (which has filed for bankruptcy) or even Wells Fargo, which has had its share of legal and financial troubles. Also, though it’s a nice retroactive, backwards-looking book about what has helped 11 particular companies, it’s hard to know how much is truly applicable going forward. So in that sense, it’s less of a how to go from good to great, and more of an interesting, almost historical read, about how these particular companies made the jump (and then sometimes plummeted back).Comparisons to Other Books:I had a similar experience with Collins’s Built to Last, which was supposed to detail the successful habits of “visionary” companies. It was a fun synopsis of a six-year research project by Stanford, and I learned all sorts of interesting trivia, but, as with many books that are backwards-looking studies of still-in-business companies, it’s sometimes hard to take the overarching messages seriously knowing how some of the chosen companies have performed since publication. I think these are great books if you’re looking to read something interesting about the business world, but I’m not sure I’d really call them instructive per se.

I've read over 100 books in the last 3 years, and both Good to Great and Built to Last are vital for any CEO/Founder to understand. Principles are applicable in life and business. I'd love to see updated version with Google, Meta, NVIDEA etc...