Rating: 
Summary: In response to Dr. Robinsons review, I couldn't agree more!
Review: Business is a lot like sports. The analogy used in Good To Great is excellent. You need more than just raw talent, you must also have passion for what you are doing---not just in it to make a buck.Also like athletes, you must prepare and train and continue to improve lest you be left behind. Times are tough and I believe that a major reason for business failings is because they have an old athletes attitude. Are hanging on to old methadology that may have worked at one time, but is sorely out of date today. Good to Great is a great book. Another one to read is Double Digit Growth. If you own your own business or are in a management capacity, these books are must reading.
Rating: 
Summary: A must read.
Review: If you enjoy business reading, you will enjoy this book. A fun, flowing read with useful conversation material throughout. Learn change secrets from the best.
Rating:
Summary: Recommended
Review: For making it in business, get this book. For making it inside your head, I'd recommend The Little Guide To Happiness. Oh, and as for getting along with others, How To Win Friends And Influence People.
Rating:
Summary: A Detailed Analysis of Business Winners
Review: The primary thrust of the book is to present a very good analysis of winning US companies and how they got that status. Do they have anything in common? Can we learn something from their success? Most of the conclusions and comments are simple and convincing. The author helps us to focus on the goals and methods of maintaining and or growing a healthy business. The ideas even pertain to a small business or a government agency. I like the sports analogy in the book. In the Olympics as in life and business you have a broad variety of performers. The athletes for example are all different - even in the same Olympic event. The top athletes that go to the Olympics all have talent and they have good coaches. But only one person in that pyramid of athletes sits at the top at the end of the day with the Gold Medal. Usually there is more than just raw talent involved. It is a long process to reach that Gold medal and the athlete must have many other things. The winner has at a minimum the discipline and the passion or love of the sport to spend a lot of time preparing and honing their abilities. Plus he or she must have more than just a desire to compete but a clear and engrained desire to win. Together these are all key ingredients to make a winner. The book is very well researched and uses a group of bright and energetic college age researchers to help the author assemble and debate the facts - the performance of well known public companies over a long span of time. The facts are precise - they are financial performance versus peers - something that can be determined with precision. That is how the winners are determined in this performance analysis of sales and earnings growth and stock prices. In some ways it is easy to measure these financial parameters and compare companies. It is harder to answer the question why (?) this company. As noted by other reviewers one must read the book carefully. Just like a glass of wine, the written book reviews do not do it justice and cannot completely convey the message. Read the book. If you are in business it is the type of book that you will keep within easy reach and look at from time to time. The book has a number of surprises (for myself) that shoot holes in the myth of the super duper CEO. He has a number of other good ideas about performance, team building, developing products, market selection, management, delegation, building companies, case studies, etc. One might disagree with some points but overall this is simply a great book and it is easy to see why it is a long-term best seller. A must buy and 5 stars. Jack in Toronto
Rating:
Summary: THE Best
Review: This is simply the best business book I have ever read. There are facts here that ring so true and many principles to apply. These are facts based on research, not just a fine theory. Best Wishes, Kevin
Rating:
Summary: Great Book for a leader seaching for a simple answer
Review: I'll keep this simple. This is a great book. The audio tape was even better. Jim Collins makes a great presentation. The concept Jim presents seems so simple, but would probably elude most leaders for many years. Maybe until it is too late in their careers or pursuits to make a difference. I recommend every serious person that wants to take their good company to the next level and stay there put this in their auto's tape player for the daily commute. You do not need to be a CEO to get true value out of this audiotape or book. The level 5 manager is a no brainer. The hedgehog concept is easy to grasp but definately turns on your creative thought process. The flywheel brings it all together. The tapes total six hours and are hard to turn off, but they beat a six hour seminar anyday.
Rating:
Summary: Absolute must read
Review: There is a reason this book has been close to the top of the best-seller list the past two and a half years. And that's because it is an extremely good book. For anybody that enjoys management and business books, it is simply a must read. I read it twice and thoroughly enjoyed it. I won't repeat what all the other reviewers said, but what struck me most about the book was the importance of managing employees played in determining which companies went from being good to being great. Although most people will give you lines such as "Our people are our most important asset", how many people really show that through their actions? The eleven "Great" companies in this study did just that. The description of the Level 5 leader illustrates that great leaders think that everybody else has to do well for the company to great. But more common in the business world today are leaders who think that they are the only reason that their organization has any success and therefore don't place much importance on hiring the right people and managing them well. The only problem I had with the book was that Collins didn't show what steps needed to be taken to become a Level 5 leader. He even admits that many people come up to him and ask what they need to do to become one and he doesn't have the answer to that question. Greg Blencoe
Author, The Ten Commandments for Managers
Rating:
Summary: Just plain good sense!
Review: In his latest book, Jim Collins, coauthor of "Built To
Last", explores the secrets behind consistently
successful companies he terms "great." To be
classified as "great," the company needs to have made
the leap from average to great results and sustained
it for at least fifteen years. Surprisingly few
companies meet this criteria. Collins worked with a
research team to study and discover what common
management elements long-term great companies share.
This book presents the results of this study and some
startling findings. The first common element among the great companies is
that the CEO is a low-profile, no-nonsense individual
and he/she creates an environment of teamwork.
Supporting this approach is the standard of having
capable, motivated staff in every position in the
company. Collins terms this, "having the right people
on the bus and in the right seats." He noted the
successful CEO's made crucial changes to their staffs
as soon as they attained their positions. Only highly
motivated and capable individuals were on their team. Once this foundation was in place, the teams met
consistently to contemplate just three criteria that
would drive the company. Collins terms this simple
strategy, "The Hedgehog Concept." The criteria are:
the company focuses on a goal in which they could be
number one in the industry, the goal is something
about which the team feels passionate, and the goal
is clear and concise. In each case study presented,
this focus brought about amazing clarity on the
operation of the business, directly leading to
success. Collins' study specifically started with companies
that were just average before making the leap to
great. However, the principles can be applied to
multiple situations. Whether you are an entrepreneur
or working within a corporate structure, this book
provides insight in how to better reach your goals.
Rating:
Summary: Ultimately, Greatness May Come Through Simplicity
Review: Speaking of Great companies, great books seem to come from either of two directions: experience or research. I find those written from experience provide a street-level insight that can't be achieved by research. Surely one can write more authoritatively from experience than from learning something and then reformatting it. That said, Good to Great is thoroughly researched, and still comes up with fundamental, 'street-level' conclusions that are worthwhile. Early on, two Great points are made that carry on throughout the book: Great leaders are self-effacing, and Great leaders tend to come from within, a fact which flies in the face of the current trend to buy talent (and thus market share in the taking). The layout of the book is a little dis-jointed with subsections and bullets, but chapter summaries lend back to the organization. Overall, a Great book that, through lots of research and maybe an overly detailed presentation, illustrates Greatness usually comes through adherance to the most basic principles. Read it to find out what they are. W. F. Depp
Rating:
Summary: Lives up to its title
Review: This was a very strong read and provoked quite a bit of thought. Based on some solid research and with solid market comparisons, "Good to Great" helps highlight those traits that can make both a company and the people within it great. While I found some of the conclusion to be a bit over-simplified and derived from conventional wisdom, in general the book delivered the goods. Having just completed "First, Break All the Rules" (which I HIGHLY recommend) I was prepared to be disappointed with my next book selection. Instead I thought this matched "First..." very well in tone and information. If your interest is in learning what points of excellence seem to appear over and over in great companies (and how you might build the same into yours) I would highly recommend "Good to Great."
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