World Famous Comics: Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't
Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't
By: Jim Collins Publisher: Collins Average Rating: Binding: Hardcover Label: Collins Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 300 Publication Date: 2001-10 Release Date: October 16, 2001
Amazon.com's Best of 2001: Five years ago, Jim Collins asked the question, "Can a good company become a great company and if so, how?" In Good to Great Collins, the author of Built to Last, concludes that it is possible, but finds there are no silver bullets. Collins and his team of researchers began their quest by sorting through a list of 1,435 companies, looking for those that made substantial improvements in their performance over time. They finally settled on 11--including Fannie Mae, Gillette, Walgreens, and Wells Fargo--and discovered common traits that challenged many of the conventional notions of corporate success. Making the transition from good to great doesn't require a high-profile CEO, the latest technology, innovative change management, or even a fine-tuned business strategy. At the heart of those rare and truly great companies was a corporate culture that rigorously found and promoted disciplined people to think and act in a disciplined manner. Peppered with dozens of stories and examples from the great and not so great, the book offers a well-reasoned road map to excellence that any organization would do well to consider. Like Built to Last, Good to Great is one of those books that managers and CEOs will be reading and rereading for years to come. --Harry C. Edwards
Product Description:
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?
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.
Chiropractic Billing went from Good to Great Having read Good to Great and implementing its principles into the every day operation of my company I can say without question this book is one of the best ever written. Billing Precision would not be the same without this book. We have used it as a guide or road map to our success. Today Billing Precision is the fastest growing billing company for Chiropractors in the US and in just three short years has grabbed a significant portion of its' market. Using the Good to Great principles Billing Precision has redefined how outsourced insurance billing and practice management software is used by chiropractors across the country. I can honestly say that Jim Collins' work has made a huge impact on my business and I definitely recommend that everyone read this book.
Brief but enlightening There's not a lot to this book, but for me it was a must read. The author explains his findings simply, but since everything is based on research instead of subjective opinion there's really no reason for him to ramble on. I also bought the audio CDs, which I recommend for air travel.
Look at the results of the 'great' companies Let's see the results of these great companies...did they even keep up with the general market since this book was publish...no...not only that many are doing abysmally such as Circuit City and Fannie Mae. Even though Jim Collins stood firm against the idea of a 'new economy' and he wisely advocates against high-profile CEOs and golden parachutes, he didn't see the massive bubble that these companies were a part of and that attributed to their 'greatness'. The empirical analysis wasn't really empirical at all and failed to see the hidden assumptions in the research. I recommend potential buyers spend money on a good economics text or course, not on this overrated junk bond of a book.
Great Resource I read this book along with its companion piece for non-profit organizations. It is filled with good, practical advice that can be applied to almost any organization. It's also a very easy read.
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