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Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 658
EAN: 9780066620992
Edition: 1
ISBN: 0066620996
Label: Collins
Manufacturer: Collins
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 300
Publication Date: 2001-10
Publisher: Collins
Release Date: October 16, 2001
Studio: Collins
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Editorial Review:
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
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 verybeginning. 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? 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
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.
“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?
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Look at the results of the 'great' companies
Let's see the results of these great companies...did they even keep up with the general market since this book was publish...no...not only that many are doing abysmally such as Circuit City and Fannie Mae. Even though Jim Collins stood firm against the idea of a 'new economy' and he wisely advocates against high-profile CEOs and golden parachutes, he didn't see the massive bubble that these companies were a part of and that attributed to their 'greatness'. The empirical analysis wasn't really empirical ... Read More
Rating:  - Great Resource
I read this book along with its companion piece for non-profit organizations. It is filled with good, practical advice that can be applied to almost any organization. It's also a very easy read.
Rating: - 7 years, apparently Jim Collins understood "built to last"
I have owned this book on CD since '03 and just this year purchased the hardcover edition. Through his teams research and analysis, Jim Collins has constructed a potentially timeless classic for business people and leaders. GTG will add to your professional talents, it is inspiring and compelling for those of us that border on obsession with our professional lives. This book has helped me to hire and fire. I revisit it regularly for inspiration. GTG is truly an investment in your own future. If you can ... Read More
Rating: - Good To Great Is The Best Business Book That I Have Ever Read!!
This book does a great job of making business interesting. It literally reads like a novel. I couldn't put it down, even though I just completed it for the third time. Although I do not subscribe to it in totality, its concepts are based upon thousands of research hours and are well presented with plenty of examples from the famous companies included in the book. I have handed it out to the management team of a recently purchased company and have no doubt that at the very least it will stimulate strategic ... Read More
Rating:  - Well presented analysis
Jim Collins is a business professor and author of three previous business books. Good to Great seeks to answer the questions, "Is it possible for a good company with an ingrained culture of average performance to become truly great?" and, if so, "how?"
Indeed, Collins argues, the answer is "yes," (hence the name oft the book) and then provides seven characteristics of companies that make such a transition. After engaging in a thorough analysis of several years worth of Fortune 500 companies ... Read More
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