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Good_To_Great_ _A_Book_Summary
| Good To Great - A Book Summary
Book Summary: Good to Great
This article is based on the following book: Good to Great "Why
Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don’t" Jim Collins,
co-author of ‘Built to Last’ Random House Business Books, London
300 pages
Explore what goes into a company’s transformation from mediocre
to excellent. Based on hard evidence and volumes of data, the
book author (Jim Collins) and his team uncover timeless
principles on how the good-to-great companies like Abbott,
Circuit City, Fannie Mae, Gillette, Kimberly-Clark, Kroger,
Nucor, Philip Morris, Pitney Bowes, Walgreens, and Wells Fargo
produced sustained great results and achieved enduring
greatness, evolving into companies that were indeed ‘Built to
Last’.
The Collins team selected 2 sets of comparison companies: a.
Direct comparisons – Companies in the same industry with the
same resources and opportunities as the good-to-great group but
showed no leap in performance, which were: Upjohn, Silo, Great
Western, Warner-Lambert, Scott Paper, A&P, Bethlehem Steel, RJ
Reynolds, Addressograph, Eckerd, and Bank of America. b.
Unsustained comparisons – Companies that made a short-term shift
from good to great but failed to maintain the trajectory,
namely: Burroughs, Chrysler, Harris, Hasbro, Rubbermaid, and
Teledyne
Wisdom In A Nutshell: a. Ten out of eleven good-to-great company
leaders or CEOs came from the inside. They were not outsiders
hired in to ‘save’ the company. They were either people who
worked many years at the company or were members of the family
that owned the company. b. Strategy per se did not separate the
good to great companies from the comparison groups. c.
Good-to-great companies focus on what Not to do and what they
should stop doing. d. Technology has nothing to do with the
transformation from good to great. It may help accelerate it but
is not the cause of it. e. Mergers and acquisitions do not cause
a transformation from good to great. f. Good-to-great companies
paid little attention to managing change or motivating people.
Under the right conditions, these problems naturally go away. g.
Good-to-great transformations did not need any new name,
tagline, or launch program. The leap was in the performance
results, not a revolutionary process. h. Greatness is not a
function of circumstance; it is clearly a matter of conscious
choice. i. Every good-to-great company had “Level 5” leadership
during pivotal transition years, where Level 1 is a Highly
Capable Individual, Level 2 is a Contributing Team Member, Level
3 is the Competent Manager, Level 4 is an Effective Leader, and
Level 5 is the Executive who builds enduring greatness through a
paradoxical blend of personal humility and professional will. j.
Level 5 leaders display a compelling modesty, are self-effacing
and understated. In contrast, two thirds of the comparison
companies had leaders with gargantuan personal egos that
contributed to the demise or continued mediocrity of the
company. k. Level 5 leaders are fanatically driven, infected
with an incurable need to produce sustained results. They are
resolved to do whatever it takes to make the company great, no
matter how big or hard the decisions. l. One of the most
damaging trends in recent history is the tendency (especially of
boards of directors) to select dazzling, celebrity leaders and
to de-select potential Level 5 leaders. m. Potential Level 5
leaders exist all around us, we just have to know what to look
for. n. The research team was not looking for Level 5
leadership, but the data was overwhelming and convincing. The
Level 5 discovery is an empirical, not ideological, finding. o.
Before answering the “what” questions of vision and strategy,
ask first “who” are the right people for the team. p. Comparison
companies used layoffs much more than the good-to-great
companies. Although rigorous, the good-to-great companies were
never ruthless and did not rely on layoffs or restructuring to
improve performance. q. Good-to-great management teams consist
of people who debate vigorously in search of the best answers,
yet who unify behind decisions, regardless of parochial
interests. r. There is no link between executive compensation
and the shift from good to great. The purpose of compensation is
not to ‘motivate’ the right behaviors from the wrong people, but
to get and keep the right people in the first place. s. The old
adage “People are your most important asset” is wrong. People
are not your most important asset. The right people are. t.
Whether someone is the right person has more to do with
character and innate capabilities than specific knowledge,
skills or experience. u. The Hedgehog Concept is a concept that
flows from the deep understanding about the intersection of the
following three circles: 1. What you can be best in the world
at, realistically, and what you cannot be best in the world at
2. What drives your economic engine 3. What you are deeply
passionate about v. Discover your core values and purpose beyond
simply making money and combine this with the dynamic of
preserve the core values - stimulate progress, as shown for
example by Disney. They have evolved from making short animated
films, to feature length films, to theme parks, to cruises, but
their core values of providing happiness to young and old, and
not succumbing to cynicism remains strong. w. Enduring great
companies don’t exist merely to deliver returns to shareholders.
In a truly great company, profits and cash flow are absolutely
essential for life, but they are not the very point of life.
IF YOU’RE DOING SOMETHING YOU CARE DEEPLY ABOUT AND IF YOU
BELIEVE IN IT, IT’S IMPOSSIBLE TO IMAGINE NOT TRYING TO MAKE IT
GREAT.
By: Regine P. Azurin and Yvette Pantilla http://www.bizsum.com
"A Lot Of Great Books....Too Little Time To Read" Free Book
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Copyright 2001-2002, BusinessSummaries.com - Wisdom In A
Nutshell
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Regine is the General Manager of BusinesSummaries, a site that
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