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 | Unlike the ego-based, "Look how great I am" books!

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Good to Great: Why...

	Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't Jim Collins Collins Business, 2001 - 300 pages average customer review:based on 703 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Great book!

This fast paced book was required reading for my company's management team and then became required reading for the entire company! Full of interesting case studies and comparisons, it sheds light on key concepts that will be helpful to any size organization.

Unlike the ego-based, "Look how great I am" books!

Watch as these companies dominate their industry with CEOs that put the company before their own personas.

Required To Read But Still Enjoyed It

My bosses boss loves this and I was made to read it as part of my annual P-928. I read it on the plane over to Rome from Detroit and it was a good solid read. Its a well documented research study on companies who were average performers who then had 15 years of sustained 2.5 or 3x stock market performance. I did appreciate the explanations as to the choices the researchers made and why.
Nevertheless, it seems to be more for middle level managers and above given that the main thesis appears to be you want a work horse CEO and not a show boat as well as one who digs down into what their company can do best and then drags the company through his dogeddness and sheer will into makeing any and all changes necessary to pursue that goal.

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Great as in "what"?

The basic concept of "Good to Great" is that there appear to be companies that outperform others quite spectacularly for a number of years. Jim Collins sets out the results of his research team that looked at "why?"

I'm not a statistician, but whenever I read a book such as this I get worried about the selection criteria. Who says these companies are great? The key measure used by Collins is "Ratio of Cumulative Stock Returns to General Market". Such a measure only looks at the company through the eyes of one stakeholder - the owners. There are also stakeholders called customers, suppliers, staff, the industry and the community - these do not seem to be considered. Taking just one stakeholder measurement does not in my mind, deem the company "great".

The author lists eight reasons for the selected companies success. Ranging from what he calls "level 5 leadership" through to continual persistence - akin to pushing against a giant flywheel. These may or may not be accurate reflections of the reasons for success. But how does one emulate them?

This is a dense book on leadership - perhaps a little too dense for me. Nothing wrong with the concepts, but I found it a little hard to concentrate. I would have liked to see shorter chapters that engaged my thinking, rather than long winded explanations. I'd also like to hear how these "great" companies manage their other stakeholders.

If you liked "In Search Of Excellence", you'll like this book.

Bob Selden, author What To Do When You Become The Boss: How new managers become successful managers

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