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Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't | |||||||||
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Product Description The Challenge But what about the company that is not born with great DNA? How can good companies, mediocre companies, even bad companies achieve enduring greatness? The Study The Standards The Comparisons Over five years, the team analyzed the histories of all twenty-eight companies in the study. After sifting through mountains of data and thousands of pages of interviews, Collins and his crew discovered the key determinants of greatness -- why some companies make the leap and others don't. The Findings "Some of the key concepts discerned in the study," comments Jim Collins, "fly in the face of our modern business culture and will, quite frankly, upset some people." Perhaps, but who can afford to ignore these findings? 5 out of 5] Great Book.......Slow shipping!!!!!!!!! September 1, 2010 Very nice product.... Very slow shipping. Just took a very long time to ship it to me..... 5 out of 5] Still Great and Relevant 10 Years Later! August 31, 2010 This one's been on my "to read" list for years until I finally got around to it recently. I always wanted to know what differentiated a truly great company from the also-rans. The book is incredibly well researched and details what makes a great leader, for example. Surprisingly the "Level 5" leaders were the lower key executives - not at all like Steve Jobs. These CEO's also placed a premium on getting the "right people on the bus" and found ways to keep them motivated so they'd stay at the company. Perhaps one of the biggest takeaways for me was how to create a culture of discipline - which frees you and your employees up - creates less bureaucracy and increases your competitive edge. 3 out of 5] Good to Great to Gone August 27, 2010 0 out of 1 I just re-read Good to Great by Jim Collins. I wanted to see if the same principles that applied to great companies in 2001 still applied today in the wake of the economic recession we are in. I actually found that they still do apply even though some of the companies, Circuit City and Fannie Mae, have not faired so well. A good sequel would be to look at all the companies profiled and see where they are 10 years later and in the case of Circuit City how did they go from Good to Great to Great to Gone. But there are still concepts that apply today just as much if not more than they did 10 years ago. One example is what he refers to as the Stockdale Paradox which came from an interview he had with Admiral Jim Stockdale who was POW in Vietnam for seven years. This principle kept him alive and is basically a way of dealing with lifes challenges. The paradox states that you must retain faith that you will prevail in the end AND at the same time you must confront the most brutal facts of your current reality. To the great companies it did not matter how bleak the situation was they all maintained faith they would survive in the end but at the same time they confronted the most facts of their current reality. Much more is said of this in Chapter 4. One more concept that I found interesting was in Chapter 5. He calls it the Hedgehog Concept and reading the chapter will give you a great understanding of why he calls it this but basically it is an understanding of what you can be the best at. It is not a goal to be the best, a strategy to be the best, or a plan but an understanding. You need to be the best at your core business. These are only two of the concepts but there are more and I feel they are still as relevant today as they were ten years ago. I would highly recommend reading this book for the first time or if you have not read it in a few years to read it again. 5 out of 5] Actionable information! August 15, 2010 This book contains actionable information, which is not something I can say for many of the business-oriented books I read. I started using the principles before I was even halfway into it! Indisputable research forms the foundation for Collins' findings and assertions. Good stuff! 5 out of 5] Normally I hate to read these kind of books August 8, 2010 Normally I hate to read corporate books and what makes a great leader and a great company. Even though Good to Great belongs in this genre, I simply love it, because it is in total line with how I have thought for most my adult life. In order to be great (as individual or company) you have to have a hedgehog concept. What is that? Here's a quote from the book Are you a hedgehog or a fox? In a famous essay " The Hedgehog and the Fox," Isaiah Berlin divided the world into hedgehogs and foxes, based upon an ancient Greek parable: "The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing. The fox is a cunning creature, able to devise a myriad of complex strategies for sneak attacks upon the hedgehog. Day in and day out, the fox circles around the hedgehog's den, waiting for the perfect moment to pounce. Fast, sleek, beautiful, fleet of foot, and crafty- the fox looks like the sure winner. The hedgehog, on the other hand, is a dowdier creature, looking like a genetic mix-up between a porcupine and a small armadillo. He waddles along, going about his simple day, searching for lunch and taking care of his home. The fox waits in cunning silence at the juncture in the trail. The hedgehog, minding his own business, wanders right into the path of the fox. "Aha, I've got you now!" thinks the fox. He leaps out, bounding across the ground, lightning fast. The little hedgehog, sensing danger, looks up and thinks, "Here we go again. Will he ever learn?" Rolling up into a perfect little ball, the hedgehog becomes a sphere of sharp spikes, pointing outward in all directions. The fox, bounding toward his prey, sees the hedgehog defense and calls off the attack. Retreating back to the forest, the fox begins to calculate a new line of attack. Each day, some version of this battle between the hedgehog and the fox takes place, and despite the greater cunning of the fox, the hedgehog always wins. Berlin extrapolated from this little parable to divide people into two basic groups: foxes and hedgehogs. Foxes pursue many ends,at the same time and see the complexity. They are "scattered or diffused, moving on many levels," says Berlin, never integrating their thinking into one overall concept or unifying vision. Hedgehogs,on the other hand, simplify a complex world into a basic principle. It doesn't matter how complex the world is, a hedgehog reduces all challenges and dilemmas to simple- concept that unifies the world into an almost simplistic hedgehog idea. For a hedgehog, anything that does not somehow relate to the hedgehog idea holds no relevance. What is a hedgehog idea and how do you get one? Another quote Hedgehog Concept is a simple, crystalline concept that flows from deep understanding about the intersection of the following three circles: 1. What you can be the best in the world at (and, equally important, what you cannot be the best in the world at). This discerning standard goes far beyond core competence. Just because you possess a core competence doesn't necessarily mean you can be the best in the world at it. Conversely, what you can be the best at might not even be something in which you are currently engaged. 2. What drives your economic engine. All the good-to-great companies attained piercing insight into how to most effectively generate sustained and robust cash flow and profitability. In particular, they discovered the single denominator- profit per x- that had the greatest impact on their economics. 3.What you are deeply passionate about. The good-to-great companies focused on those activities that ignited their passion. The idea here is not to stimulate passion but to discover what makes you passionate. Is it easy to answer the three questions in these three circles? No it's not. It is something that usually takes years, although for some people it happens in a moment of great awareness. Another quote Despite its vital importance (or, rather, because of its vital importance), it would be a terrible mistake to thoughtlessly attempt to jump right to a Hedgehog Concept. You can't just go off-site for two days, pull out a bunch of flip charts, do breakout discussions, and come up with a deep understanding. Well, you can do that, but you probably won't get it right. It would be like Einstein saying, "I think it's time to become a great scientist, so I'm going to go off to the Four Seasons this weekend, pull out the flip charts, and unlock the secrets of the universe." Insight just doesn't happen that way. It took Einstein ten years of groping through the fog to get the theory of special relativity,and he was a bright guy. It took about four years on average for the good-to-great companies to clarify their Hedgehog Concepts. Like scientific insight, a Hedgehog Concept simplifies a complex world and makes decisions much easier. But while it has crystalline clarity and elegant simplicity once you have it, getting the concept can be devilishly difficult and takes time. Recognize that getting a Hedgehog Concept is an inherently iterative process, not an event. Continue Searching | | ||||||||