Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Reaching Beyond Clever Concepts to Find Real Solutions
Through extensive research and simple analysis Jim Collins uncovers what few business books deliver: real usable business wisdom. Absent are the parables, jargon, and other simplistic linear ideas with little real world applications.What he finds are humble, realistic, but demanding and clear leaders; an emphasis on getting the right people first and the vision second; a unique mixture of focus, discipline, and patience What is equally important is what he does not find: flamboyant media darling executives, extravagant or complicated compensation systems, or reliance on technology as a competitive edge. What he uncovers are real solutions to sustainable growth and success, derived from real companies and histories. Some of the companies came from depressed industries (Nucor and steel), and some came from rapidly changing industries (Wells Fargo and banking), but all shared very common learnable and applicable traits. In his conclusion Collins asserts that going from good to great is less consuming and less painful than wallowing in mediocrity; and "the building of momentum adds more energy into the pool than it takes out." It ultimately gives greater meaning and reward to all of the people associated with the company. It would be hard to find a better reason to read and absorb these ideas.
Rating: - A Well Researched Insight!
This book is easy to read and well researched. There is much to glean from its many words of business wisdom, which should be taken as a general guide to good business practices that ensure great, not just good success. Having worked for many years in high-tech companies, I particularly agree with the authors that several factors can be detrimental to attaining greatness. They are: Excessive restructuring and reorganizing, retaining egotistical, bombastic CEO's, a culture of promoting the ignorant, yet visually appealing managers etc. However, it is very true that placing the right, i.e. knowledgeable and disciplined people in the right positions is of utomost importance. These conclusions hit the nail on the head! If you would like to read about these wise findings in a different light, such as the warning signals of imminent failure, and have a good laugh at the same time, then I would also highly recommend the business/humor/satire, MANAGEMENT BY VICE by C.B. Don. In it you shall see some real-life examples of how a good company can undermine its successes and stumble on the road to greatness with rotten management practices, a self-serving CEO, desperate reorganizations...do read the "Reorganization Pill" and "Power Look"...and many more such exposes. Once I had read both these books, I personally felt I had a superbly well-rounded perspective on how a company can soar from good to great and what pitfalls to watch out for!
Rating:  - The legitimate route in becoming a savant in any business
Jim Collins new book is titled Good To Great. If you haven't read it yet, buy, beg, or borrow it. It is that important if you are in any business.
Collins and his team identified 11 companies that followed a pattern of "fifteen-year cumulative stock returns at or below the general stock market, punctuated by a transition point, then cumulative returns at least three times the market over the next fifteen years." Public companies were selected because of the availability of comparable data. Fifteen-year segments were selected to weed out the one-hit wonders and luck breaks. While these selection criteria exclude "new economy" companies, Collins contends that there is nothing new about the new economy, citing earlier technology innovations of electricity, the telephone, and the transistor.Collins maps out three stages, each with two key concepts. These six concepts are the heart of Good To Great and he devotes a chapter to explaining each of them.
1) Level 5 Leadership
2) First Who... Then What
3) Confront the Brutal Facts
4) The Hedgehog Concept
5) A Culture of Discipline
6) Technology Accelerators In this book, Jim Collins also challenges the notion that "people are your most important asset" and theorizes instead that "the right people are." I don't know that I yet completely agree with his philosophy that it's more important to get the right people on the bus and then see where it goes than it is to figure out where to go and get the right people on the bus who can get you there. However, he makes his point clearly and you can decide if you agree with him.
This nearly 300-page book is packed with leading edge thinking, clear examples, and data to support the conclusions. It is a challenge to all business leaders to depict the discipline required to move their companies from Good To Great.
With this type of book one can always argue that the author is just writing up common sense ideas. Of course, but common sense is hard to find sometimes. What Collins did is to study companies that made a dramatic transition. Looking at companies commulative stock returns, compare with the market and direct comparison companies, Collins identify companies that, at some transition point, resulted in great performances compare with all others. Specifically, at least three times the market performance over fifteen years.
What I have here are some notes from the keypoints in the book for myself. You really need to read the entire book to understand what this is all about!
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