Rating: 
Summary: GREAT BOOK
Review: This is a great book. It is probably the best-researched book I have ever read on management. I recommend this book along with "Strategic Organizational Change" by Beitler, and "Organizational Culture & Leadership" by Schein.Larry Chifton
Charlotte, NC
Rating:
Summary: Good to Great + Optimal Thinking = Greatest
Review: This outstanding business book is based on the extraordinarily positive thinking of those who have shaped the business world. The 11 companies examined have made substantial improvements in performance over time and show common traits that challenge many of the conventional notions of corporate success. I was most inspired when I learned that corporate cultures that found and promoted disciplined people to think and act in a disciplined manner is the key ingredient for GREATNESS. After reading this remarkable book, I read another highly recomended book, Optimal Thinking: How To Be Your Best Self by Rosalene Glickman Ph.D. which is the key to individual and corporate optimization. A superlative book. I absolutely recommend each of these books if you want to OPTIMIZE your corporate culture.
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Summary: Top 5 insights from Good to Great
Review: 1. Put a Level 5 leader in place:
This person should have intense ambitions for the company, rather than for themselves. They also should be an effective leader, competent manager, contributing team member and a highly capable individual. If you can't do this first, start working on the other steps and a Level 5 leader may emerge. 2. Get the right people on your bus before you make other key decisions:
Decisions about vision, strategy, organizational structure and tactics cannot be made until you have first made sure you have the right people on your team, and that they are in the correct positions. You also need to get rid of people who should not be there. 3. Confront the brutal facts:
When you work hard to understand the reality of your current situation, the correct decisions often emerge. Great companies tend to have cultures in which people have many opportunities to be heard. 4. Understand three critical areas:
Understand three things: in what areas can your firm be the best in the world; what are you passionate about; what are the drivers of your economic engine? Set your goals based on in-depth understanding of these areas, not on what Collins calls bravado. 5. Create a culture of discipline
Sustained success depends on "building a culture full of self-disciplined people who take disciplined action, fanatically consistent with the three circles."
Rating: 
Summary: Fluff
Review: I can save you the cost of this book: Companies become great because they figure out who is making money for the company and work hard to keep those people happy. If those people become unhappy they leave and are replaced by second rate employees who at best 'keep things afloat'. Such as the fall of Fairchild and the Rise of Intel.
Rating: 
Summary: Great is better than good, but great is suboptimal
Review: This book has a lot of great research and provides excellent case studies, but it does NOT provide information to optimize the performance of individuals or corporate results. Sure, great is better than good, but by settling for great, individuals and corporations are settling for second best. If you want to maximize productivity, profitability, job satisfaction and commitment to the corporate mission, then you need to integrate Optimal Thinking into your company. I recommend Optimal Thinking: How to Be Your Best Self by Dr. Rosalene Glickman as a companion to this book.
Rating:
Summary: From Bad to Worse
Review: If I were giving out stars for book titles I'd give this five - it's perfect. The content however is far less than that. The "research" is at best questionable and further, there is nothing new here. If you are among the many looking to move from good to great (and aren't we all) and hope to find the answers in this book you will be disappointed. Pop management books are easy to find and even easier to sell - do your research, there are better resources out there.
Rating:
Summary: Great Performance
Review:
Face it! You can make great speeches, write excellent policy, or video conference daily. However, true success is developed out of habits and performance executed by top companies and outlined in this terrific book
Rating:
Summary: Lessons for Managers & Entrepreneurs
Review: (By Edward Trimnell, author of "Why You Need a Foreign Language & How to Learn One," ISBN: 1591133343) Business narratives often make the mistake of delving deeply into the details of a particular industry or organization without extracting the key principles involved. Collins, however, examines the struggles and triumphs of companies in a variety of industries, and identifies some universal causes of success and failure. He then presents the principles he has found in terms that can be readily understood and applied by managers, entrepreneurs, and even staff-level corporate employees. Among the most useful of the principles described by Collins is the "Hedgehog Concept." In the chapter of the same name, the author describes how organizations can identify and exploit their core strengths. This chapter--which is equally applicable to small business owners and individuals--is worth the price of the book. Several other chapters("Level 5 Leadership," "First Who, Then What," etc.) could be described as blueprints for building effective organizational cultures. Once again, the principles explained are applicable even if you don't happen to hold the title of CEO. Read "From Good to Great" with a highlighter in hand, and refer back to the book often. This work should be required reading for every new manager and small business owner.
Rating:
Summary: What kind of company do you want?
Review: If you want transform a mediocre company and mediocre leadership skills to "more than ordinary" or "great" this is your book. If you want to OPTIMIZE your company and leadership skills, then get Optimal Thinking : How to be your best self as well and give the book to every employee in your company. We use many of the insights from this book, and optimize our company with Optimal Thinking each and every day.
Rating:
Summary: A very good book, with one caveat.
Review: A very good book. Collings and his group use extensive research of publicly traded companies whose stock has outperformed the market for 15 years after some period of mediocre stock performance. These companies are compared to other companies in similar industries and similar financial characteristics at the beginning of the period when the great companies began their climb. I really enjoyed reading this book and I'm impressed by all the research data provided in the appendices. Rather than get one CEO's opinion, the information is backed up by data from multiple industries with data from other companies that are not great. Strong company performance is correlated with several factors that were surprising, including a humble CEO who takes blame but not credit, promotion of CEOs from within, and a focus on what you can do best, even if it's not something you are doing now. The only caveat I have is that correlation does not imply causality. The book cites several factors (Level 5 leadership, hedgehog concept, etc.) that are correlated with greatness. These factors may be the cause of greatness, or both greatness and these factors may be the result of some other cause. Additional research is needed before the factors cited can indeed be demonstrated to cause greatness.
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