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  Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't (Hardcover)
  Good to Great Cover
 
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Description Editorial Reviews About the Authors
 
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?
 
Features

Hardcover:  320 pages

Carton Size:  Please Inquire

Publisher:  Collins (October 16, 2001)

Language:  English

ISBN-10: 0066620996

ISBN-13: 978-0066620992

Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.2 inches

Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds

 

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Average Customer Review: Based on 3 Reviews. Write a review.

  3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
 
Road to success not just for corporations May 14, 2007
Reviewer: Pawan Mittal "p_one" from Buena Park, CA  
The concepts developed in this book are as good for individuals as for corporations. I found the hedgehog concept particularly interesting. Hedgehog concept helps a company determine its forte. The same concept can be used by individuals to figure out what they want to do in lives? How can they be successful in what they are doing and importance of faith and long term planning. I would recommend this book to EVERYONE who wants to make a difference in his or her life.

The language used is plain and easy to understand even for someone whose english is not very good. The best part about the book is Author's use of real life examples to illustrate his point. The book starts with few technical concepts which may led reader to assume that the book is for business honchos only. But the book requires absolutely no knowledge of business world and stock market. So please don't let the first few pages deter you from reading the book.

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  8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
 
Good to Great is truly great May 14, 2007
Reviewer: Sandra Brown from London  
Jim Collins has written other fine books, but Good to Great is clearly his best. This book methodically explores the defined approach taken by top companies to achieve greatness. The profound results of this approach show good enough is not good enough; not when greatness can be achieved with just a little more effort and a more refined strategy. I highly recommend this book and would also like to recommend another terrific book: Leanne Bucaro's outstanding Leaders: How Top Innovators Can Help Your Business Succeed on a Global Basis. Bucaro's book is a lighter read with less research but still well worth picking up for its inspiring profiles of companies that help other companies succeed. Each chapter closes with a summary of Leadership Lessons and the book itself ends with an insightful list of tips for success. My own tip would be to buy both books; a modest investment that will get your mind bubbling with ideas and ways to achieve great success. These are two great books you won't regret reading.


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  241 of 282 people found the following review helpful:
 
Good to Great..... May 14, 2007
Reviewer: louis caputo from NJ  
Why do some companies have continuing, sustained growth in excess of those companies around them? What is it that makes them different? Is it charismatic leadership? Right place, right time? Unique product?

This is the question that Jim Collins attempts to answer in Good to Great.

He and a team of 20 researchers spent five years and more than 15,000 manhours researching the question, Why Some Companies Make the Leap, Good to Great...and Others Don't.

They reviewed thousands of books, articles, and annual reports; conducted financial analyses on records that totaled 980 years of combined business records. They interviewed 84 senior executives and board members, scrutinized the personal and professional records of 56 of the CEO's, and researched the executive compensation plans.

They analyzed the patterns in layoffs, how media exposure affected the financial results, and finally, how technology was used and it's effect, if any on the financial performance of the companies. The team researched every aspect that could be quantified, codified, analyzed or compared.

The study begins with 1,435 Fortune 500 companies and narrows the list down to 11 that made the transition from good-to-great companies.

These are companies that stand out as being different from their direct competition.This book shows you objectively what it was that made these companies financial returns 3,4, to 18 times better than stock market averages for 15 years. And, it tells you
how to apply these findings to your business.

Level 5 Leadership: Moving from good to great starts with leadership, with the will and drive to succeed. Not on a personal level, but for the company to succeed.

First Who...Then What: Next find the right people to manage and run the business.

Control the Brutal Facts: Then look at the facts objectively. What are your core competencies?

Hedgehog Concept: Then take action based on being the best at what you can be the best at.

Culture of Discipline: Implement the resulting plan rigorously, with discipline and focus.

Good to Great is a textbook on how to run a successful organization. It includes extensive appendices detailing the methodologies of the research and comphrehensive notes and references.

Good to Great is a must-read for anyone building or leading a business or group. And it challenges a lot of the current hype
about makes a company successful. Whether it be the charismatic CEO, to the hype of IT, or merger mania, none of these contributed to the success of the top 11 companies covered in Good-to-Great.

At 300 pages, Good-to-Great is a comphrehensive research project, well written and entertaining too. If you enjoyed Built to Last, you will love Good-to-Great.


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