Define Books Concering Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't
Original Title: | Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't |
ISBN: | 0066620996 (ISBN13: 9780066620992) |
Edition Language: | English |
Literary Awards: | Audie Award for Business/Educational (2006) |
James C. Collins
Hardcover | Pages: 300 pages Rating: 4.1 | 121584 Users | 4254 Reviews
Commentary As Books Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't
To find the keys to greatness, Collins's 21-person research team read and coded 6,000 articles, generated more than 2,000 pages of interview transcripts and created 384 megabytes of computer data in a five-year project. The findings will surprise many readers and, quite frankly, upset others. The Challenge Built to Last, the defining management study of the nineties, showed how great companies triumph over time and how long-term sustained performance can be engineered into the DNA of an enterprise from the very beginning. 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 For years, this question preyed on the mind of Jim Collins. Are there companies that defy gravity and convert long-term mediocrity or worse into long-term superiority? And if so, what are the universal distinguishing characteristics that cause a company to go from good to great? The Standards Using tough benchmarks, Collins and his research team identified a set of elite companies that made the leap to great results and sustained those results for at least fifteen years. How great? After the leap, the good-to-great companies generated cumulative stock returns that beat the general stock market by an average of seven times in fifteen years, better than twice the results delivered by a composite index of the world's greatest companies, including Coca-Cola, Intel, General Electric, and Merck. The Comparisons The research team contrasted the good-to-great companies with a carefully selected set of comparison companies that failed to make the leap from good to great. What was different? Why did one set of companies become truly great performers while the other set remained only good? The Findings The findings of the Good to Great study will surprise many readers and shed light on virtually every area of management strategy and practice. The findings include: Level 5 Leaders: The research team was shocked to discover the type of leadership required to achieve greatness. The Hedgehog Concept (Simplicity within the Three Circles): To go from good to great requires transcending the curse of competence. A Culture of Discipline: When you combine a culture of discipline with an ethic of entrepreneurship, you get the magical alchemy of great results. Technology Accelerators: Good-to-great companies think differently about the role of technology. The Flywheel and the Doom Loop: Those who launch radical change programs and wrenching restructurings will almost certainly fail to make the leap.Identify Of Books Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't
Title | : | Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't |
Author | : | James C. Collins |
Book Format | : | Hardcover |
Book Edition | : | Deluxe Edition |
Pages | : | Pages: 300 pages |
Published | : | October 16th 2001 by Harper Business |
Categories | : | Business. Leadership. Nonfiction. Buisness. Self Help. Management. Personal Development |
Rating Of Books Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't
Ratings: 4.1 From 121584 Users | 4254 ReviewsJudge Of Books Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't
I wish more authors of business best sellers would employ such rigorous research to substantiate their writing as Jim Collins did in Good to Great. The more rigorous research however, the less surprising the findings. What did distinguish companies at the stage of transition from good to great was:* having the right people including ego-less leadership;* seeing undistorted reality for what it is;* focus on one mission in the intersection of their abilities, passion and financial viability.ExtraI have no idea how much Jim Collins knows about business / management, but it is clear hes mastered the art of writing a popular business / management book. The way I see it, the steps involved are:* State up front what the themes are, but disguise at least a few of them with cryptic labels that portend greater meaning to those who venture further. Who wouldnt read on when enticed by the promise of the lowly hedgehogs secret for success or how Admiral Stockdales paradoxical key to survival as a
A five year research study dedicated to analyzing the results of its own sampling bias without realizing it and puffed up with so much unnecessary fluff that the essence of the book could have been distilled on the front cover in a few bullet points under the title and it would have probably still been considered a waste of time to read.
I hope I don't get fired for not thinking this was the greatest book ever. Honestly, business books are not exactly my cup of tea. This book started off really interesting. The author talks about habits that great companies use to keep their companies run smoothly. Many of the suggestions the author gives seem very logical -- don't have negative people work for your company, don't try to put your hand in every pot, don't stop doing things that work well and do stop doing things that aren't
If you watched the corresponding documentary on PBS, you probably won't need to read this book. If you haven't, then maybe you might be interested in how certain companies manage to turn from good to great (i.e., from reasonable profit to outstanding performances that outshine established market leaders). You aren't? Well, you should, because the golden rules presented in this book can be applied to almost all aspects of life.Alec, who is responsible for buying this book*, commented on the
The good: interesting research, useful advice, great writing.The not so good: the findings are not nearly as scientific, timeless, or widely applicable as the book claims.The idea behind this book is that Collins and his team researched a large number of public companies, came up with a list of 11 that made a jump from "good performance" to "great performance" (i.e., significantly out-performed the market) over a sustained period of time, compared those 11 companies with 17 similar companies
I was hoping this book would give me some guidelines to remember when I start my own business. There were a few good points, but nothing compelling. Reading this book wasn't a very good use of my time.Tips from the book:First Who, then WhatFirst, get the right people on the bus (and the wrong people off it), then figure out where to drive. Having the right people in the company is more important than deciding what the company will do, because the right people will help make that decision anyway.
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