Editorial Reviews:
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 |
Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
 More Than A Business Book, May 3, 2023
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 believed 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.
A unique feature of Collins' work is that it 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 conclusions of a researcher, who found what has worked and is reporting it for our benefit.
I read the book when it was first released, then I purchased and listened to the audio book, next I heard Collins lecture on the subject and now I've gone back to re-read my highlights annually. I've found the principles to be effective in various avenues of life. Whether you are a businessman or a person wanting to experience higher levels of achievement and satisfaction, I highly recommend "Good to Great."
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Business and Life Changer, May 2, 2023
Jim Collins wrote the book "Good to Great" knowing it would have a great impact in the business world. He succeeded at that, and after reading it, I realized the genius of his study and how amazing great research can still be. What Jim Collins did not know when he wrote this book is how you can apply the principles of this book to your everyday life and get amazing results as well.
The "hedge-hog concept", his analogy of the "right people on the bus," and "the enormous fly-wheel effect" all are concepts that if you apply to your everyday life will help you be a better person at whatever you do.
0 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
A must have for a Leader's library, Apr 29, 2023
This is an excellent book! I'd also recommend his book, "Built to Last," both of these books are "must haves" for any leader's personal lbrary.
1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
 Add Hedgehog to Your Skillset, Apr 27, 2023
Jim Collins has the right idea, and whether or not we agree with his conclusions, we should applaud any approach that seeks the best in lasting human performance.
Simply stated, this book outlines the results of a large research project, and no doubt some readers will have difficulty with statistics and research comparisons. However, to his credit, Collins puts many study details in the appendices, available for the scholars among us. For the busy reader, key points are highlighted in the text and summarized at the end of each chapter. The reader is guided through study results via a simple and helpful diagram found at the beginning of each chapter.
Good to Great not only describes the behaviors that lead to greatness but also the behaviors that do not lead to greatness ("dogs that did not bark"). A critical point in the work is the Hedgehog Concept, an interaction of the answers to three significant questions: 1) What are you deeply passionate about? 2) What can you do better than anyone else in the world? 3) What drives your economic engine? Collins skillfully guides the reader through each of these questions by illustrating how great companies have answered the questions. On occasion, he puts the results in helpful tables wherein the reader can compare the companies.
Good to Great builds on his previous work in Built to Last. Business leaders should add the Hedgehog Concept to their skill set.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
Well written, but small and dated, Apr 27, 2023
Here's the thing about Good to Great: it's a well-written study that belies its underlying flaw - that it's a very tiny study. That is to say the entire set of core principles upon which the book is founded derives from just 11 companies. Now there are some great learnings from the leaders of those companies, don't get me wrong, but I'm not willing to stake my entire paradigm perception of good business models on such a small and dated study (it is now over half a decade old). For a much better look into successful managers and their behavior patterns, see Buckingham's "First Break All the Rules", which was a Gallup study of over 10,000 managers. Three stars: five stars for excellent research and writing, minus two stars for impact and size of study (and subsequent relevence).
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Based on 348 reviews.