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

Rating:
Summary: Timely Book
Review: If you are wondering what makes some companies succeed when other fail miserably, read this book. It will fill in at least part of the answer to the puzzle. I particularly liked the critique of corporate radical change programs and restructurings.

Also recommended: 'The Slingshot Syndrome: Why America's Leading Technology Firms Fail at Innovation' by Reid M. Watts.

Rating:
Summary: Very insightful and fascinating read
Review: While I am only a student merely begining his entrepenuerial studies, I would recomend this book to anyone looking to gain a true insight into how some of the greatest companies of our time have managed to become so succesful. This book is interesting and provides case studies on how certain corporations, mainly 11 very succesful ones, combine leadership and forseight to maitain success for many years. The eleven companies were selected on very strict parameters and ones that have not only achieved success but have also maintained it. I recomend this book to anyone within the business community. It can help all people and companies achieve greater success.

Rating:
Summary: Central Group's "Good to Great" review
Review: Today's popular business press is filled with books that purport to know the path to business greatness. Theories, new buzzwords, and charismatic authors pushing the latest business fad, have not answered " Why some companies make the leap and others don't"? This question drove Jim Collins and his research team to embark on a five-year research project to examine the transition of going from a good company to a great company. Jim Collins captures the culmination of their efforts in the book " Good to Great".
Jim and his team used rigorous selection criteria that resulted in the pool of 1435 publicly traded companies, which had all appeared on the Fortune 500 list between 1965 and 1995. The team subjected these companies to a "death march of financial analysis". The analysis methods are detailed in 51 pages of appendices in the book. The analysis had four elimination rounds. In the end , eleven "good to great companies" remained from the initial pool of 1435 companies studied.
The final eleven companies were examined and interviewed to determine the underlying traits that separated the great companies from the good companies. The great companies had traits in common. These traits were transparent to industry type and product.
Jim Collins and the team set out to discover and understand how businesses achieve and maintain greatness. This refreshing approach has produced some surprising findings.
Level 5 leaders are not flashy

Get the right people on board
Understand the " Hedgehog concept" for your business and follow it.

This book provides the framework for pursuing sustainable greatness in the business world.

We were let with one question, Would these traits also appear in small privately held companies?

Central Group

Rating:
Summary: Good is the Enemy of Great
Review: Well, that's how the book opens. It is not an understatement. This book helps people at all levels understand what hard work needs to be accomplished in order to make the jump to Great. It can be done. What is required? Confront the brutal facts about needed changes: who should be on the bus and who should not be? Do we have a culture of discipline? What about the one thing we can truly be the best in the world at; are we doing that?

This book is loaded with improvement opportunities for every company. It is an enjoyable read, Jim is an amazing author and speaker, and I have personally tried to apply suggestions made in the book.

Oh, if you think you are a Level 5 leader, you probably are not!

Rating:
Summary: Must Read for Business Leaders
Review: If you want to lead your company to greatness, read this book. If not, don't bother; you won't understand or appreciate it. The book is best read slowly, carefully, and analytically...with highlighter or notepad close at hand. You will find each chapter through-provoking, inspirational, and stimulating. Savvy readers will be motivated to initiate specific actions before even completing the book.

"Good to Great" is actually, in the author's mind, a prequel to his best-selling "Built to Last." It's a research-based report of what it takes to move from being a good company to a great company. His focus is on organizations that have sustained great results for at least 15 years. The selection criteria, explained in the book, were tough. The book examines companies that moved from mediocrity to extraordinary performance, exploring how they did it and what common lessons might be learned.

Is this usable information for your company? Collins asserts "Our five-year quest yielded many insights, a number of them surprising and quite contrary to conventional wisdom, but one giant conclusion stands out above the others: We believe that almost any organization can substantially improve its stature and performance, perhaps even become great, if it conscientiously applies the framework of ideas we've uncovered."

The chapters are organized according to what Collins and his researchers learned makes companies great: Good is the Enemy of Great, Level 5 Leadership, First Who, then What, Confront the Brutal Facts, Hedgehog Concept, Culture of Discipline, and Technology Accelerators. The book moves then to explain the flywheel and doom loop concepts that enable the other factors to either enable the company build momentum to high achievement or wind down to a whimper and drop off the radar screen. Closing the book, Collins relates this work to his previous work reported in "Built to Last." The Frequently Asked Questions epilogue helps tighten the readers' focus, as do the summaries at the end of each chapter. There are several research appendices for those who wish to look behind the curtain.

This is a powerful book with a wealth of messages about how the eleven Great Companies did it. Example follows example, with painfully simple methodology. Amazingly, most executives and managers get in their own way, making it impossible for them to make the leap from good to great. The companies Collins used to compare against his chosen few suffered from that dilemma, and Collins names names to tell the story of exactly what happened-or didn't happen. Expect to be a bit embarrassed by what you have done or not done, but at the same time educated about what you need to do now.

You may not agree with everything you read in "Good to Great," but you'll think. And you'll act. And that makes a book powerful. This is a book you'll recommend to others.

Rating:
Summary: Better Than Good, This Book Is Great
Review: If you liked Jim Collins' book, "Built to Last," you will love his follow up called, "Good to Great." This is one of those rare cases, where the sequel is actually better than the original. "Good to Great" is more than a business book. It is a book with principles applicable to many aspects of life. Collins challenges his readers to aspire to greatness rather than the mediocrity of being good. He says, "Few people attain great lives, in large part because it is just so easy to settle for a good life."

In Collins' study to be considered "great," a company's stock had to earn more than triple the general stock market for fifteen consecutive years. The research found seven keys common with the eleven companies, which were able to make the "Good to Great" transition:

1. LEVEL FIVE LEADERSHIP - They had leaders who were a paradoxical blend of personal humility and professional will.
2. FIRST WHO...THEN WHAT - People are not the most important asset. The right people are.
3. CONFRONT THE BRUTAL FACTS - They maintained unwavering faith that they would prevail in the end, and at the same time the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of the current reality.
4. THE HEDGEHOG CONCEPT - Their core business was that at which they could be the best in the world.
5. THE CULTURE OF DISCIPLINE - When a company employs disciplined people hierarchy, bureaucracy, and excessive controls are not necessary.
6. TECHNOLOGY ACCELERATORS - Technology by itself is never a primary, root cause of either greatness or decline.
7. THE FLYWHEEL AND THE DOOM LOOP - Good-to-great transformation never happened in one fell swoop but as a relentless push to breakthrough and beyond.

I like that Collins' work is not from the perspective of a practitioner who models his "how I did it" formula. Such a formula is often based on an extraordinary person in a unique circumstance and, as such, it isn't easily transferable. Neither is it the postulation of an unproven theory by a philosopher. Rather it is the objective conclusion of a researcher, who found what has worked and is reporting it for our benefit. As a pastor, I like the fact that the principles (especially the leadership findings) square with Scripture, and many of them can be directly applied to the local church. I think you will find the same in your occupation or profession. Whether you are a businessman or a person wanting to experience higher levels of achievement and satisfaction in life, I highly recommend "Good to Great."

Rating:
Summary: Great book.
Review: This is one of the best books I have read for a long time. The author proposes to study more than 1500 good companies and select criteria which would make a good company GREAT. Companies and their CEOs, in general, are more than ever focused on making money without making decent products or providing good service. They might be viable in the short time, but never became great in long range. The great companies, however, prospered because they did both.

The book illustrates a few basic points worth remmbering:

#1. The CEO should work for the company, and not the other way around.
#2. He should look for the right people, instead of filling his Board with friends or cronies in order to have total control of the company.
#3. The company should have discipline: disciplined people, thought and action.
#4. The company should have basic core values.

If all the companies just follow a few of these rules, they not only would be immensely successful, but also won't have to fudge their books.

Rating:
Summary: A Easy To Read Book With Some Good Insight
Review: At 210 pages, "Good To Great: Why Some Companies Make The Leap and Others Don't" reads very quickly (The last section of "Good To Great" consists of many notes and appendices). The core of the book emphasizes what Collins refers to as a 'hedgehog' strategy that is necessary to achieve greatness. I'm not sure why a 'hedgehog' is necessary to explain such a simple strategy. But, I guess we can live with the rodent analogy.

Collins says great companies are like hedgehogs in that they stick to what they know and can do well. Collins says when a fox attacks a hedgehog the hedgehog curls into a prickly ball and the attacking fox must leave it alone. Then, the fox runs around and tries another point of attack and never learns. The hedgehogs only needs to do one thing that works well and consistently.

In short, after much research and writing, Collins finds the key to business success is functioning within the intersection of three circles.

The first circle represents an endeavor at which your company has the potential to be the best in the world. The second circle represents what your company can feel passionate about. The third circle represents a measure of profitability that can drive your economic success. You must choose to do something that's profitable and know how to focus upon that profitability.

To find the circles, Collins makes the excellent point that you must begin with the right people. Collins emphasizes that the people must come before you decide exactly how your company will achieve success.

We learn that in great companies there is often heated debate about what's best for the company. The culture of great companies is open in the sense that the truth will be heard. That's very different from debating for the sake of protecting private turf and self-aggrandizement.

Collins' research says the CEO's at the time companies become great aren't egotistical business leaders. Rather, they tend to be reserved people who channel their ego into building their companies. Collins is a little vague on exactly how you get other employees and key players to channel their egos into building the company. The hope is that, if you select the right people, they'll do what's best for the company rather than for themselves. I'm not so sure that's always true.

Finding something you can be passionate about is the other key. And, all employees must be passionate about the endeavor. Because most employees won't get jazzed about making the CEO and shareholders wealthy, a company should have a purpose beyond just making money. Collins says a company should have 'core values.'

Collins says it doesn't matter what these 'core values' are, just that they exist. He says Philip Morris is happy to provide the strongest brand recognition of 'sinful' products. Maybe, they're rebelling against political correctness, or health, or whatever. If it works for them, it's cool. Fannie Mae, on the other hand, prides itself on providing mortgages to new, less-affluent homeowners and helping people buy homes. That sounds good, and is probably true, but it reads a little bit like a publicity statement.

Incidentally, the Great companies chosen were: Abbot Labs, Circuit City, Fannie Mae, Gillette, Kimberly-Clark, Kroger, Nucor, Philip Morris, Pitney Bowes, Walgreens, and Wells Fargo.

While many of Collins' observations have insight and are well worth reading, I can't help but feel that certain points are forced to conform to Collins' ideas. For example, Nucor realized it could be the world's best steel manufacturer. Why? Had Nucor failed, I could imagine reading that Nucor tried to run around like a fox. Possibly, this is only the result of needing to fit all Collins' research into a short book, and Nucor had a truly viable reason to believe it could be the world's best steel maker.

As another example, Collins tells us Walgreens spent $100 million to create its own satellite system in an attempt to enhance profit per customer visit. Collins admires this because they used technology to stay focused upon their key ratio of profitability. Of course, the Internet came along and offered easier communication between the stores, so that you can pick up your prescription at any store, even when away on vacation. But, should a drugstore rodent really be messing with satellites? Is that within his inner rodent?

My feeling is that if this had all bombed and Walgreens had not been bailed out by the Internet, Collins would be using Walgreens as a good example of going too far outside what your company can be the best at! I see a hedgehog on the information freeway following the shinny bright lines.

In short:

--Get the right people on the bus. Get the wrong people off the bus. Be sure everyone is in a seat that suits them. Collins says that the right people are your best asset. Let them choose their own song. 99 Bottles Of Beer On The Wall, or whatever...

--Let the right people discover something your company can be great at. (This won't always work for ultra-small companies-- by the time you have the right people and are paying them, you'll be out of money before anyone figures out what you should be doing!)

--Choose something that the company can be passionate about. Passion isn't dictated, it's discovered.

--Find your best single measure of profitability. Collins asks: If you could maximize profitability per x, what x would have the biggest long-term impact on your company's success? Then, stay focused on improving that one key ratio.

--Stop making 'to do' lists. Start making "stop doing" lists. Stop doing anything that doesn't fit within your inner rodent.

--Know that you will succeed in the end. Have faith in your company's destiny. But, realize it might take many years that really suck to get there. Collins says you must confront the brutal facts of your company's reality.

Peter Hupalo, Author of "Thinking Like An Entrepreneur"

Rating:
Summary: Good to Great is a Great read!
Review: I would recommend this book highly to anyone running an organization or advising those that do. Collins breaks down a complex business world into very simple, clear concepts. Many of the conclusions reached by Collins are contrary to popular belief about leadership, and approach to strategy.

Finally a guru, who's starts with a focus on companies with phenomenal results, then works to identify the causes, rather than trying to make a case that attempts to prove a pre-determined hypothesis.

Rating:
Summary: Good's Not All Bad
Review: In his previous book, "Built to Last," business writer Jim Collins looked at those companies, like Hewlett-Packard and Merck, that started off on the right foot with the right business DNA, in other words those companies that were born great. In "Good to Great" he now turns his attention to the more practical question of companies that achieve greatness.

With the help of a large research team, Collins used a rigorous selection process that identified 11 companies showing a transition from a 15 year period of stock returns no better than 1.25 times the general market to a 15 year period of stock returns more than 3 times the general market. These companies, which included the likes of Gillette and Philip Morris, were then subjected to detailed analysis and compared with similar companies that failed to make the leap to greatness, and even with some companies that made the initial leap only to fall back. "Good to Great" represents the condensed findings of this massive research project, with a range of findings from the logical to the startling that make this book essential reading for anybody in business.

Avoiding fancy jargon, Collins writes in a clear, concise style that uses effective analogies to get his points across. For example, Aesop's fable of the fox and the hedgehog is turned to good effect to contrast those companies that look sleek and skillful but ultimately fail, with those that look more unassuming but know one big thing that ensures their success.

Perhaps the most shocking finding regards styles of leadership, with the great-to-good companies being led by quiet, modest, self-effacing CEOs who combine professional will with personal humility and typically come from within the company -- a marked contrast with the messianic, high-profile CEO who claims to know all the answers.

This is a great book of its kind, but it misses the main point. Underneath all the positive and disciplined thinking favoured by Collins, is the simple metaphysical fact that too much business is killing our planet. Greater efficieny in business merely speeds up our manipulation by materialism, unleashing the uncontrollable economic cycles of growth that will finally chew up our hapless globe till it is reduced to an overpopulated and overexpolited travesty of greed, materialism, and subjection of the human spirit in the name of business efficiency.