In continuing with the current theme of good to great, i would now like to explore the idea that jim collins put forth which he dubbed the hedgehog concept. 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. Doing good great is a highly engaging mix of riveting story and astute analysis, made all the more compelling because of the authors unique portfolio of experiences in the worlds of business, international development agencies, and private philanthropy. He researched hundreds of companies to identify sets of good companies where one became great while a close competitor failed. Disciplined action level 5 leadership the type of leaders required for going from good to great are level 5 leaders. Get 50% off this audiobook at the audiobooksnow online audio book store and download or stream it right to your computer, smartphone or tablet. From the author of built to last, good to great outlines a model for turning a good, average or even mediocre company into a great one. This october marks the 15th anniversary of good to great by jim collins, one of the most influential business books in history. The seven principles discovered by collinss study in almost all companies that went from good to great, and conversely not found in the comparison companies that never became great or became great only to fall back into mediocrity, are something i keep coming. Influential management professor jim collins released the popular good to great. Good to great, by jim collins the stockdale paradox chapter 4, pages 8385 the name refers to admiral jim stockdale, who was the highest ranking united states military officer in the hanoi hilton prisonerofwar camp during the height of the vietnam war. It should have some concepts that alter the way people think.
Before good to great, collins wrote the celebrated built to last, about visionary, iconic companies that have stood the test of time. The challenge built to last, the defining management study of the nineties, showed how great companies triumph over time and how longterm sustained performance can be engineered into the dna of an enterprise from the verybeginning. Ive taken some of my favorite phrases or statements from that book, and created this short document. The amount of research and analysis that has gone into this book is mindboggling. Few people attain great lives, in large part because it is just so easy to settle for. Good to great by jim collins cliff notes max hodgen chapter 1. The hedgehog concept simplicity within the three circles. Doug balfour writes honestly and passionately, and the result is a book i would. In good to great jim collins talks about why some companies remain ordinary while others go to being great and return stellar stock market returns.
Good to great by jim collins cliff notes max hodgen. Dec 12, 2014 either way, a great book does not have to be a good read to be a great book. Buy good to great book online at low prices in india good. The book was a bestseller, selling four million copies and going far beyond the traditional audience. But you absolutely cannot let your good work stop there. I would say a good business book should have an empirical foundation, which can come from deep practical experience or rigorous research. The principles collins proposes arent bad ones, but they. This book contains the basic and complicated paths you need to take to go from being good to great. The findings of the good to great study will surprise many readers and shed light on virtually every area of management study and practice. Fannie mae, praised as one of the banks to go good to great, has fallen into the trash heap since 2008 and has never recovered.
It takes the game to a different dimension if not level. But insight and understanding dont happen overnightor after one offsite. In his book good to great, jim collins indicates that in order to become great you need great ideas, have the correct people on the bus, great management and leadership. After searching all over for a book written more recently that works as well as good to great, i gave up. The pretext of this book is how do you take a good company and make it great. Here they are, with quotes from my professors on what they have learned differentiates good from 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 worlds greatest companies, including cocacola, intel, general electric, and merck. The book is really a research project led by collins as a followup to his book built to last. Lessons from good to great that hold up 15 years later. The book good to great by jim collins is technically a business book, but many of its findings apply to individuals as well. The twists are unexpected and the settinga highpressure arts school in the 1980sis pitchperfect. Collins writes that good to great companies had no name for their transformations. Successful habits of visionary companies good to great, book 2. The slippery question of what makes a great book brain pickings.
We dont have great government, principally because we have good government. How can good companies, mediocre companies, even bad companies achieve enduring. In the journey from good to great, defining your hedgehog concept is an essential element. It has sold millions of copies, and many of its phrases have become regular elements of the management lexicon, making it essential reading for leaders and young professionals alike. The first being an environment that did not confront the brutal facts and where people and the truth were not heard. Jul, 2010 good to great is an excellent book, filled with fascinating insights for the business leader, or anyone striving to make their organization great. Thats how you keep going from great to even greater. In this video, well summarize the key concepts of good to great, including. The classic book good to great, authored by stanford business school professor jim collins shows us why some companies make the leap while from good to great, while other companies dont key ideas.
We dont have great schools, principally because we have good schools. Some books become great because the public embraces them en masse. After a fiveyear research project, jim collins concludes that good to great can and does happen. A student of enduring great companies, he serves as a teacher to leaders throughout the corporate and social sectors. The key to going from good to great is to get the right people onboard, engaging in critical thinking, then taking disciplined action aligned with the hedgehog concept. Slideshare uses cookies to improve functionality and performance, and to provide you with relevant advertising. For, in the end, it is impossible to have a great life unless it is a meaningful life.
In his book he reports the results of over ten years of research of the financial results of every company on the fortune 500 list from 1965 until 1995. What are the key takeaways from the book good to great by jim. For a stepbystep guide on unleashing your best, explore my free ebook you. And that is one of the key reasons why we have so little that becomes great. The summary in the answer by yi can give you the salient points. Based on a fiveyear research project comparing companies that made the leap to those that did not, good to great shows that greatness is not primarily a function of circumstance but largely a matter of conscious choice, and discipline. Based on a fiveyear research project comparing companies that made the leap to those that did not, good to great shows that greatness is not primarily a function of circumstance but largely a matter of conscious choice, and discipline this book discusses concepts like level 5. Finding case studies to answer this question is no easy task and the research team set about it by finding companies that performed at the industry average for 15 years, then outperformed the market for the next 15 years by a factor of 3. But what about the company that is not born with great dna. Good to great by jim collins book summary oberlo blog. The evidence simply does not support the idea that the specific structure of executive compensation acts as a key lever in taking a company from good to great. Why some companies make the leap and others dont good to great.
The good to great companies averaged cumulative stock returns 6. A notable story from good to great is about how dick cooley, thenceo of wells fargo, prepared the company for major industry changes by focusing on building up his pool of talent. And they stick with that disciplinefirst the people, then the directionno matter how dire the circumstances. They start by getting the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people in the right seats. Good to great is about how to turn a good organization into one that produces sustained great results. 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. Good is the enemy of great the process going from good to great is a process of build up followed by breakthrough. Collins that describes how companies transition from being good companies to great companies, and how most companies fail to make the transition. All concepts summarised in this presentation belong to the author of the book. Jim collins is coauthor of built to last, a national bestseller for over five years with a million copies in print. The primary selection process consisted of baselining the good to great companies at three times the market for fifteen years including 15 years of good performance 1. The people we interviewed from the good to great companies clearly loved what they did, largely because they loved who they did it with. I have to catch up on a few days i missed, and publishing one summary per day is my hedgehog concept right now.
Rigorously supported by evidence, his findings are surprising at times even shocking to the modern mind. They are fairly generic and thus we all apply them from our own viewpoint to make them true. The book includes a useful model which brings all the theory together in a meaningful and memorable way. When you combine a culture of discipline with an ethic of entrepreneurship, you get the magical alchemy of great results. Ok, so built to last is about companies that have lasted over many eras and are still going strong. Peppered with dozens of stories and examples from the great and not so great, the book offers a wellreasoned road map to excellence that any organization would do well to consider. A serious revolution, one that feels like a revolution to those going through it, is highly unlikely to bring about a. The book is based on the premise that good is the enemy of great. Good is the enemy of great theme of the book discovering what made good companies great. As a way to keep track of all the notes ive been taking in this school, as well as share them with the world, ive written a book of the top 8 lessons so far about what it takes to be great. Good to great why some companies make the leap and others dont book by jim collins slides by ryan battles collins, james c. Get the right people on the bus in the right seats jim. The hedgehog concept comes for the old greek parable about a hedgehog and a fox which states the following. In fact, leaders of companies that go from good to great start not with where but with who.
Circuit city, another good to great, doesnt even exist anymore, at least by name and as a bricknmortar store. This book is a must read before implementing the next big change or improvement program in your business, or hiring the next keyperson. Why some companies make the leapand others dont in 2001. When the dust cleared and the goodtogreat companies were identified, the author and his researchers found distinct patterns of behavior in those who led each company and the people who followed them patterns that concerned disciplined people, thought and action. Supersummary, a modern alternative to sparknotes and cliffsnotes, offers highquality study guides that feature detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, quotes, and essay topics. The best part is that collins offers a step by step guide and he focuses on the importance. First of all, the good to great principles are true in the same way a horoscope is true.
Jul 19, 2016 good is the enemy of great the process going from good to great is a process of build up followed by breakthrough. Three books sit on more executives bookshelves than any others. Finding case studies to answer this question is no easy task and the research team set about it by finding companies that performed at the industry average for 15 years, then outperformed. A book report on good to great by jim collins book report by gary tomlinson preface. Few people attain great lives, in large part because it is just so easy to settle for a good. This onepage guide includes a plot summary and brief analysis of good to great by jim collin. We found no systematic pattern linking executive compensation to the process of going from good to great. In this book, he uncovers the underlying variables that enable any type of organisation to make the leap from good to great while other organisations remain only good.
Bestselling author, jim collins is causing quite a stir with his latest book, good to great. As i said, im trying to make this website the best book summary website in the world. Turning good managers into great leaders by zenger,john, folkman,joseph and a great selection of related books, art and collectibles available now at. The book was a bestseller, selling four million copies and going far beyond the traditional audience of business books. When i first read the book, i thought jim collins beautifully presented his case studies, and i was quite taken by all. Built to last is about how you take a company with great results and turn it into an enduring great company of iconic stature. Aug 26, 2015 i just love good to great by jim collins. The seven principles of good to great jims jumbler. I believe that some good to great readers that love the book may be suffering from the barnum effect. In an ironic twist, i now see good to great not as a sequel to built to last, but more of a prequel. By bringing together disciplined people, using disciplined thought and disciplined action companies can build up and break through the barriers that hold. Please be aware that this discussion guide may contain spoilers. The search a six month long financial analysis looking for companies that showed the following basic pattern.
In search of excellence 1982, built to last 1994, and good to great 2001. The comparison companies had a penchant for doing just the opposite, failing to grasp the fact that managing your problems can only make you good, whereas building your opportunities is the only way to become great. And it is very difficult to have a meaningful life without meaningful work. Good to great pdf was regarded as some member of the wall street journal as one of the best management books they have ever read. In chois experimental coming of age novel, which won the 2019 national book award for fiction, two theater kids, sarah and david, fall in love and explore their relationship for their craft under the watchful eye of their drama teacher. The actual screeningandselection process was a rigorous one. It was an inherently iterative processconsisting of piercing. The good to great companies made a habit of putting their best people on their best opportunities, not their biggest problems.
Good to great transformations often look like dramatic, revolutionary events to those observing from the outside, but they feel like organic, cumulative processes to people on the inside. This work is licensed under a creative commons attributionshare alike 3. A serious revolution, one that feels like a revolution to those going through it, is highly unlikely to bring about a sustainable leap from being good to being great. On average, it took four years for the good to great companies to crystallize their hedgehog concepts. Even 14 years after its release, this is still the best vehicle to get managers, especially senior managers, to open their minds, get out of the box, face the brutal facts and challenge themselves to take their own companies to a higher.
The second being an environment that did confront the brutal facts and where people had a tremendous opportunity to be heard. Good to great by jim collins is a book that has been sitting on my bookshelf for awhile now. Rigorously supported by evidence, his findings are surprising at times even. Good to great this book addresses a single question. Going from good to great means finding where you can play your best game. For this exact reason, this is my third summary of the day. Overall, good to great is an absolute classic business book and one that we recommend you read. It became clear to cooley in the early 1970s that the finance industry was going to see significant changes in regulations, but no one knew exactly what changes. The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing. We dont have great schools principally because we have good schools. The goodtogreat companies made a habit of putting their best people on their best opportunities, not their biggest problems. Influential management professor jim collins released the popular. Good to great, signed abebooks shop for books, art.