Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap...and Others Don't

All Available Formats + Editions

——

$14.99

NOOK Book

——

$14.99

Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap...and Others Don't (eBook) Pub. Date: 7/19/2011 Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
$4.81

$18.17

Hardcover

$4.81

$18.17

Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap...and Others Don't Pub. Date: 10/16/2001 Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
$3.00

$28.76

Audiobook

$23.85

$28.76

Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap...and Others Don't (CD - Unabridged, 8 CDs, 10 hours) Pub. Date: 6/14/2005 Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers

$11.75

$25.64

Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap...and Others Don't (CD - Abridged, 5 CDs) Pub. Date: 10/28/2001 Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers

$3.00

$23.04

Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap...and Others Don't (Cassette - Abridged, 4 Cassettes) Pub. Date: 10/1/2001 Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers

——

$36.47

Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap...And Others Don't (MP3 - Unabridged) Pub. Date: 10/28/2008 Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers

$13.03

——

Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap...and Others Don't (CD) Pub. Date: Publisher: Recorded Books, LLC

$42.71

——

Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap...and Others Don't (Cassette) Pub. Date: Publisher: Recorded Books, LLC

See all Audiobook results

See fewer Audiobook results

Customers Who Bought This Also Bought

ADVERTISING

Overview

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 very beginning.

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 worldÕs 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?

"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?

Editorial Reviews

From Barnes & Noble

The Barnes & Noble Review
Jim Collins begins this book with a startling and counterintuitive claim: "Good is the enemy of great." We've become so conditioned to think of performance as something that develops along evolutionary lines -- from poor to good to outstanding -- that it takes a minute to grasp the notion that competence can actually inhibit achievement. As Collins says, "The vast majority of companies never become great, precisely because the vast majority become quite good -- and that is their main problem."

Based on an extensive five-year study conducted by Collins and a research team he affectionately refers to as "the Chimps," Good to Great defines and analyzes the practices that allowed 11 companies to make the rare transition from solid to outstanding performance. One of the first surprises of the book is the list of companies Collins focuses on: Circuit City, Gillette, Walgreens, and Wells Fargo haven't been touted as top performers in that way that GE or Coca-Cola, for instance, have. Nonetheless, the companies chosen have all met the rigorous criteria that Collins developed to measure the good-to-great transition. Some of the other revelations in the book concern the lack of correlation between executive compensation and corporate performance; the fact that technology did not in itself engender corporate transformation; and the scant attention that these upward-trending companies paid to such issues as managing change or motivating people.

Collins's philosophy is summed up in one noteworthy phrase from the book -- "Greatness is not a function of circumstance. Greatness, it turns out, is largely a matter of conscious choice." Anyone who wants to make the right choices for their business will find Good to Great instructive, accessible, and well worth reading. It is sure to be a business book that will be consulted and referred to for years to come. (Sunil Sharma)

Business Week

One of the top ten business books of 2001

More Reviews (1) Fewer Reviews

From The Critics

In what Collins terms a prequel to the bestseller Built to Last he wrote with Jerry Porras, this worthwhile effort explores the way good organizations can be turned into ones that produce great, sustained results. To find the keys to greatness, Collins's 21-person research team (at his management research firm) read and coded 6,000 articles, generated more than 2,000 pages of interview transcripts and created 384 megabytes of computer data in a five-year project. That Collins is able to distill the findings into a cogent, well-argued and instructive guide is a testament to his writing skills. After establishing a definition of a good-to-great transition that involves a 10-year fallow period followed by 15 years of increased profits, Collins's crew combed through every company that has made the Fortune 500 (approximately 1,400) and found 11 that met their criteria, including Walgreens, Kimberly Clark and Circuit City. At the heart of the findings about these companies' stellar successes is what Collins calls the Hedgehog Concept, a product or service that leads a company to outshine all worldwide competitors, that drives a company's economic engine and that a company is passionate about. While the companies that achieved greatness were all in different industries, each engaged in versions of Collins's strategies. While some of the overall findings are counterintuitive (e.g., the most effective leaders are humble and strong-willed rather than outgoing), many of Collins's perspectives on running a business are amazingly simple and commonsense. This is not to suggest, however, that executives at all levels wouldn't benefit from reading this book; after all, only 11 companies managed to figureout how to change their B grade to an A on their own. (Oct.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780066620992
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date: 10/16/2001
Edition number: 1
Pages: 320
Sales rank: 527
Product dimensions: 6.50 (w) x 9.40 (h) x 1.08 (d)

Meet the Author

Jim Collins

With his bestselling business books Built to Last and Good to Great, Jim Collins uses his research and smart writing to bust management myths and offer important insights about what makes top companies tick.

Good To Know

Collins says he finds the writing process a difficult one. "I can average no more than a page a day of high quality output – and those are long days!" he said in our interview. "If I produce a 30 page chapter, it will take me 30 days of work. I like what Michener said: 'I am not a master writer. I am a master rewriter."'

Collins has been married to wife Joanne for 22 years; the pair got engaged four days after their first date. When I finished Good to Great, Joanne said, “It’s nice to have you back” -- even though I’d been sitting just 20 feet away in the Morris chair for all those months of writing. That’s just the nature of writing a book; it requires a degree of obsession and productive neurosis.

A passionate rock climber, Collins likes to work early in the morning and then take a break to go climbing on the cliffs of Boulder or Eldorado Canyon. "No matter how wrapped up I am in a piece of work," he says, "it all melts away when I’m focused on the next ten feet of rock. I like to return in the afternoon for a good nap of 30 minutes to two hours, followed by a late afternoon creative work session before spending the evening with Joanne."

1. Hometown:
  
  Boulder, Colorado
1. Date of Birth:
  
  January 25, 1958
2. Place of Birth:
  
  Aurora, Colorado
1. Education:
  
  B.S. in mathematical sciences, Stanford University, 1980; M.B.A., Stanford University, 1983
2. Website:
  
  http://www.jimcollins.com

Read an Excerpt

Chapter One

Good is the Enemy of Great

That's what makes death so hard -- unsatisfied curiosity.

--Beryl Markham,
West with the Night

Good is the enemy of great.

And that is one of the key reasons why we have so little that becomes great.

We don't have great schools, principally because we have good schools. We don't have great government, principally because we have good government. Few people attain great lives, in large part because it is just so easy to settle for a good life. The vast majority of companies never become great, precisely because the vast majority become quite good -- and that is their main problem.

This point became piercingly clear to me in 1996, when I was having dinner with a group of thought leaders gathered for a discussion about organizational performance. Bill Meehan, the managing director of the San Francisco office of McKinsey & Company, leaned over and casually confided, "You know, Jim, we love Built to Last around here. You and your coauthor did a very fine job on the research and writing. Unfortunately, it's useless."

Curious, I asked him to explain.

"The companies you wrote about were, for the most part, always great," he said. "They never had to turn themselves from good companies into great companies. They had parents like David Packard and George Merck, who shaped the character of greatness from early on. But what about the vast majority of companies that wake up partway through life and realize that they're good, but not great?"

I now realize that Meehan was exaggerating for effect with his "useless" comment, but his essential observation was correct -- that truly great companies, for the most part, have always been great. And the vast majority of good companies remain just that -- good, but not great. Indeed, Meehan's comment proved to be an invaluable gift, as it planted the seed of a question that became the basis of this entire book -- namely, Can a good company become a great company and, if so, how? Or is the disease of "just being good" incurable?

Five years after that fateful dinner we can now say, without question, that good to great does happen, and we've learned much about the underlying variables that make it happen. Inspired by Bill Meehan's challenge, my research team and I embarked on a five-year research effort, a journey to explore the inner workings of good to great.

In essence, we identified companies that made the leap from good results to great results and sustained those results for at least fifteen years. We compared these companies to a carefully selected control group of comparison companies that failed to make the leap, or if they did, failed to sustain it. We then compared the good-to-great companies to the comparison companies to discover the essential and distinguishing factors at work.

The good-to-great examples that made the final cut into the study attained extraordinary results, averaging cumulative stock returns 6.9 times the general market in the fifteen years following their transition points. To put that in perspective, General Electric (considered by many to be the best-led company in America at the end of the twentieth century) outperformed the market by 2.8 times over the fifteen years 1985 to 2000. Furthermore, if you invested $1 in a mutual fund of the good-to-great companies in 1965, holding each company at the general market rate until the date of transition, and simultaneously invested $1 in a general market stock fund, your $1 in the good-to-great fund taken out on January 1, 2000, would have multiplied 471 times, compared to a 56 fold increase in the market.

These are remarkable numbers, made all the more remarkable when you consider the fact that they came from companies that had previously been so utterly unremarkable. Consider just one case, Walgreens. For over forty years, Walgreens had bumped along as a very average company, more or less tracking the general market. Then in 1975, seemingly out of nowhere -- bang! -- Walgreens began to climb...and climb...and climb...and climb...and it just kept climbing. From December 31, 1975, to January 1, 2000, $1 invested in Walgreens beat $1 invested in technology superstar Intel by nearly two times, General Electric by nearly five times, Coca-Cola by nearly eight times, and the general stock market (including the NASDAQ stock run-up at the end of 1999) by over fifteen times.

How on earth did a company with such a long history of being nothing special transform itself into an enterprise that outperformed some of the best-led organizations in the world? And why was Walgreens able to make the leap when other companies in the same industry with the same opportunities and similar resources, such as Eckerd, did not make the leap? This single case captures the essence of our quest.

This book is not about Walgreens per se, or any of the specific companies we studied. It is about the question -- Can a good company become a great company and, if so, how? -- and our search for timeless, universal answers that can be applied by any organization.

Our five-year quest yielded many insights, a number of them surprising and quite contrary to conventional wisdom, but one giant conclusion stands above the others: We believe that almost any organization can substantially improve its stature and performance, perhaps even become great, if it conscientiously applies the framework of ideas we've uncovered.

This book is dedicated to teaching what we've learned. The remainder of this introductory chapter tells the story of our journey, outlines our research method, and previews the key findings. In chapter 2, we launch headlong into the findings themselves, beginning with one of the most provocative of the whole study: Level 5 leadership.

Undaunted Curiosity

People often ask, "What motivates you to undertake these huge research projects?" It's a good question. The answer is, "Curiosity."...

Interviews & Essays

Exclusive Author Essay
In 1994, my life changed dramatically when Built to Last, the book I coauthored with Jerry Porras about what it takes to build enduring great companies, became a wholly unexpected bestseller. Oddly, I responded by going into a deep existential funk. After six years of immersion, I no longer had a big project to work on. It was like I'd returned from the Lewis and Clark expedition with no new outlet in which to channel my somewhat obsessive energies. I woke up every morning and wondered, What on earth am I going to do next? My anxiety only worsened as I felt pressure from all sides -- agents, publishers, pundits -- to "get on with the next one to capitalize on the first one."

Fortunately, my wife, Joanne, pulled me out of the muck. "Don't pick another question just to do another book," she admonished. "Wait until a question picks you."

It was great advice. And I began to wait...and wait...and wait. A month went by. Then six months. Then a year. Then nearly two years. I began to have a sinking feeling that I would never again have a worthy question that would capture my passion and imagination.

But then at a dinner with people gathered to discuss organizational change and performance, a McKinsey partner leaned over his salad and said, "You know Jim, we love Built to Last around here. But unfortunately, it's useless."

Useless? Six years of my life, useless?

His observation proved to be an invaluable gift. It planted the seed of a question that became the basis of the next five years of my life, namely, Can a good company become a great company and, if so, how?

The question of good to great captured me on a deep level as not just a business question but a human question. For the truth is, good is the enemy of great. And that is one of the key reasons why we have so little that becomes great. We don't have great schools, principally because we have good schools. We don't have great government, principally because we have good government. Few people attain great lives, in large part because it is just so easy to settle for a good life. And the vast majority of companies never become great, precisely because the vast majority become quite good -- and that is their main problem.

Five years after that fateful dinner (and 20,000 hours of research time with my team), I can now say, without question, that good to great does happen, and we've learned much about the underlying variables that make it happen. Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap...and Others Don't is the culmination. And while I fully expect another bout with existential despair in the wake of publication, I wouldn't trade the journey for anything.

If we have cracked the code on good to great, then we might see good schools become great schools, good government become great government, good companies become great companies and perhaps even a number of good lives become great lives. And that has made the effort worth every minute. (Jim Collins)

Reading Group Guide

"In an ironic twist, I now see Good to Great not as a sequel to Built to Last, but more of a prequel. Good to Great is about how to turn a good organization into one that produces sustained great results. Built to Last is about how you take a company with great results and turn it into an enduring great company of iconic stature." --Jim Collins

An IntroductionCan good companies, mediocre companies, even bad companies achieve enduring greatness? And if so, what are the distinguishing characteristics that cause a company to go from good to great? Using tough benchmarks, Jim Collins and his research team embarked on a five-year pursuit to identify a set of elite companies that made the leap to great results. How great? These 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 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. Why did one set of companies become truly great performers while the other set remained only good? After sifting through mountains of data and thousands of pages of interviews, Collins and his team discovered the key determinants of greatness -- why some companies make the leap and others don't. The findings of the Good to Great study will surprise many readers and shed light on virtually every area of managementstudy and practice. "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? Questions for Discussion

Collins states in the Introduction to the book, "I'd like to say we planned the timing, but we began this project in 1996 and had no idea that it would fit perfectly the zeitgeist of 2001. We got lucky." Do you believe that Collins and his team of researchers were simply "lucky"? Why or why not?

What do you think of the research methods employed by Collins and his team? Do you agree with the methods that they used? What would you have done differently?

One of the most crucial criteria set forth was the requirement for companies to have achieved success and maintained it for fifteen years. "We picked fifteen years because it would transcend one-hit wonders and lucky breaks (you can't just be lucky for fifteen years) and would exceed the average tenure of most chief executive officers (helping us to separate great companies from companies that just happened to have a single great leader)." Do you agree with this assessment? How would the results of the study have differed if this particular criteria had been altered?

The research team identified a series of steps that characterize good-to-great transitions: Level 5 Leadership, First Who…Then What, Confront the Brutal Facts, The Hedgehog Concept, A Culture of Discipline, Technology Accelerators, and The Flywheel and the Doom Loop. Which of these factors is the most crucial to a company's success? Do you think it is imperative for a successful company to have all of these factors?

Collins called Level 5 Leadership "one of the most provocative [steps] of the whole study." Do you agree? Of the CEOs profiled in the book, who do you think most exemplifies the qualities of Level 5 leadership? Explain why you chose this person.

Collins and his team "were surprised by the list" of good-to-great companies: Abbott, Circuit City, Fannie Mae, Gillette, Kimberly-Clark, Kroger, Nucor, Philip Morris, Putney Bowes, Walgreens, and Wells Fargo. Were you surprised by the companies that appeared on the list? Are there any companies that you expected to appear that were absent?

He also says that "this became the first of many surprises that led us to reevaluate our thinking about corporate greatness." The fact that they were surprised means that they went into the study with certain assumptions. What were those assumptions?

Questions for Discussion about Both Books

The catalyst for Good to Great came about in part because a McKinsey partner remarked to Jim Collins that the companies written about in Built to Last "were, for the most part, always great. They never had to turn themselves from good companies into great companies… But what about the vast majority of companies that wake up and part way through life and realize that they're good, but not great?" What do you think of this statement? What is there to be learned from each of the books?

Jim Collins said that Good to Great is a prequel to Built to Last. Do you see it this way? Do the two books work in tandem with one another?

In Good to Great, Wells Fargo is profiled as one of the "good-to-great" companies. In Built to Last, Wells Fargo is not one of the visionary companies but rather the comparison for visionary company American Express. Discuss the implications of this.

Collins states, "We believe that almost any organization can substantially improve its stature and performance, perhaps even become great, if it conscientiously applies the framework of ideas we've uncovered." Do you agree with this statement? Why or why not? In what instances do you think the concepts set forth in Good to Great and Built to Last would work best? In what instance do you think they would not be successful? Do you think the theories laid out in each of the books can be applied to any industry?

Which of the company success stories did you find the most surprising, and why?

Customer Reviews

Average Rating 4

( 157 )

Rating Distribution

( 89 )
( 35 )
( 18 )
( 5 )
( 10 )

If you've bought this product, tell the world how you liked it.

Write a Review

MAXIMUS15

Posted December 14, 2010

PRETTY AWFUL

After reading this book I was not very impressed. Jim Collins started with a template and tried to find companies that would fit into his template. His leadership idea is nothing new and he could have taken all the leaders in the world and found stories that fit into his mold. His revelations are obnoxious and he spends about half the book talking about the good to great concept instead of using deep analysis to uncover some hidden truths.

One of the greatest flaws of this book is how he took a good look at certain companies through interviews but he failed to study any of the accounting changes that effected some of the businesses he discusses. One of the most notable is Walgreen's and circuit city who were able to structure their leases in such a way that they did not have to disclose them on the balance sheet as assets or liabilities. Walgreens and Circuit City grew because their bankers didn't get the full picture of how much debt the company was able to take on under the table and not disclose. Now that these companies are forced to disclose that information they appear less solvent and their stock price has adjusted to reality. Additionally Circuit City tanked when the new accounting practices and bad economy showed how insolvent they really were.

Other things Jim Collins failed to mention involved the establishment of right to work states that ended union control on companies and allowed NUCOR to establish one of the most efficient manufactures in the world.

Most of the companies Jim talks about have fallen apart in heaps and are bad to average. He should have written a book about how little research he had to do to write a book that would get praise from the entire academic sector but be a complete bad to worse book at best.

Don't buy the book! Save your money and take some accounting classes and you can then uncover what takes a company from good to great!

4 out of 6 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.
Anonymous

Posted July 9, 2011

Assigned Reading - Wasted Time

This book was required reading for the company's annual store managers meeting in Las Vegas. Time was assigned in the agenda for discussion groups and roundtables to explore it's merits. So we all (most of us) dutifully read this tedious work only to find that any sessions related to the book were cancelled due to "Questions concerning the book's relevance" and designated free time or the Corporate version of "Basket Weaving". The flawed process allowed companies with creative accounting practices to appear greater than reality. I am a avid reader both personally and professionally. Reading this took hours of my life I'll never get back...

3 out of 4 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.
Shyamashree-Rudra

Posted April 15, 2011

more from this reviewer

A book for the ages!

Good to Great is Jim Collins's follow-up to Built to Last, the 1994 management classic, which he co-wrote with Jerry Porras. Infact, Collins calls Good To Great a "prequel" to his hugely successful Built To Last. I call it one of the most important Business Leadership books I have read. While Built To Last was a great book, however, it left out critical information, because those companies were already great. What about those of us struggling to move our companies from Good To Great as opposed to those trying to hold on to greatness? The missing piece is clearly identified in Collins' Good To Great. Collins spent five years of research assisted by 20 business school students, who analyzed 1,435 public companies for this book. Their findings - just 11 companies from were able to sustainable their good to great efforts.
Having identified the companies that made the leap from Good To Great, Collins and his team set out to examine the transition point. What characteristics did the Good To Great companies have that their industry counterparts did not? What didn't the Good To Great companies have? 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.
.Level 5 Leadership
.First Who... Then What
.Confront the Brutal Facts
.The Hedgehog Concept
.A Culture of Discipline
.Technology Accelerators
Many experts have problems with the way Collins and his team performed their "research." Some argue that Collins's measure for greatness is flawed or that his work fails to be classified as true research because it does not follow any scientific method. Or that the key measure used by Collins ("Ratio of Cumulative Stock Returns to General Market") looks at the company only through the eyes of one stakeholder - the owners. These arguments may be a bit unfair because some of the variables in business do not lend themselves well to true research; greatness is a subjective quality; and the amount of immeasurable historical variables for this particular project is so immense. If research of this nature was an easy task, we should have written tried and tested formulas for perfect businesses, leaders, schools, cities, et al during our 3,000 plus years of civilization.
Unlike many business books that are based on hype and after-market consulting services, Good to Great is mainly based on good old fashion business principles. Sure, Collins renames some of them with gimmicky names like Hedgehog Concept and The Flywheel. But for the most part, Collins's book has some sound principles in it that the reader shouldn't necessarily take as a game plan, but rather a starting point for conversation, reflection and inspiration both for themselves and their team.
How does his research reflect in the current economic slowdown? If I were to apply Collins' theory in today's recessionary environment, I would show one priority above all others: to acquire as many of the best people as possible. I'd put off everything else to fill my bus. Because things are going to come back. The flywheel is going to start to turn. And the single biggest constraint on the success of any organization will be the ability to get and to hang on to enough of the right people.
To sum up, Good to Great can be a very useful tool when its principles are adapted to the user's unique situation and variables.

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.
John_Clinton

Posted March 24, 2011

I Also Recommend:

read together with 'enduring success'

As Circuit City went under and some of the other Good to Great companies struggled critics pointed out that Jim Collin's companies are not quite that great and hence his suggestions not useful. I think they are wrong. It does not matter how well these companies do in the long run. The book uses a specified observation period (15 good, followed by 15 great years) and develops propositions based on this period.

A more valid criticism of the book is related to the method. Case study research - as the method is called in management sciences - allows you to develop ideas and theories not test them. Jim Collins could be more explicit about this.

Once we establish what the book and can't do, it actually provides great thoughts on how you can turn your company from good to great. But what next? How do you stay there. Jim Collins'suggest you take a look at 'Built to Last', a book that describes how firms succeeded over many decades. It's a great read but a little dated (17 years since it was first published). I recommend that you take a look at the newly published 'Enduring Success. What we can learn from the history of outstanding corporations'. Same question but incorporation of fresh management thoughts plus connection to current debates.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.
Locky

Posted September 22, 2009

I Also Recommend:

This book has become a religion for me...

I read Good to Great about four years ago and I am constantly going back to it to keep me on the course. I was amazed not only by the revelations, but also by how much of the ideas seem to be common sense, but really aren't in the business world. It became by goals to find a company matched the ideals laid out in this book (and happily, I think I have). The book is very easy to read and the research is laid out and explained in a very thoughtful way.

There are lessons here well beyond business. A high school teacher friend of mine read this and said he found it very insightful to his world as well.

A must read.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.
Anonymous

Posted August 22, 2011

DO NOT READ!

This book was a waste of my time. Many of the corporations that were considered "great", are no longer in business (Circuit City), or no longer doing well (Fannie Mae) proving that the characteristics of the great companies mentioned are false.

0 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.
Anonymous

Posted July 2, 2011

The best business book ever

It's hard to give a bigger compliment than that. I've re-read the book many times and always love it.

0 out of 3 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.
BlackMax

Posted October 18, 2010

This is a must read book

This book has great value and really helps you understand how good companies over a sustained period of time are able to become great companies. Good research, examples, and analysis of how and why. A good book for a small business owner or a corporate executive.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.
Azra

Posted October 5, 2010

more from this reviewer

Test

TEst

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.
JasonGuti

Posted June 5, 2010

Get the right people on the bus first!

The analysis of "Good-to-Great" companies and several comparison companies was successfully shared from the perspective of Collins and his team. The ability to define what it takes to achieve greatness was placed in terms that could be understood and applied in situation in and out of the corporate world. For example, Collins' comparison of different leadership styles and how they affect the longevity and sustained success of a company was described in full detail with real industry examples. By describing the different hierarchies of leadership, Collins was able to place comparative limits between the "good"
and "great" companies. In addition, the traits of the "level 4" versus "level 5" leaders were utilized in defining critical concepts throughout the book.
In describing the "great" companies that were analyzed, Collins was able to explain how they each had their own "Hedgehog Concept". The great companies used this hedgehog concept in order to put themselves ahead of the market and stay on top of their industry. This was a prime example of a concept that can be used in everyday life. Think about it, take what you can be the best at in the world and focus on that option and work towards that goal whether it is baseball, making your company a Fortune 100 company, or even playing an instrument.
Collins ties the main leadership properties, the culture of discipline, and the hedgehog concepts into a more thorough description when discussing the breakthrough of a company. The Flywheel concept explains that the breakthrough to greatness is progressive and momentum is built up, however, there is not a defined transition point. This was an amazing concept that was well defined as it showed that changes do not happen instantaneously, they take time. The right team has to be built created in order to start turning the wheels.
Overall, I would recommend this book as the concepts are broken down into understandable and general vocabulary that can be understood and appreciated from the college student level on up. Collins has an amazing ability to apply the concepts to actual situations that allow the reader to feel as if they are conversing with the author while reading through the literature. The concepts are laid out very well for application in the corporate world, especially for students who are preparing for their careers. This is knowledge that all business leaders, management teams, and associates should be familiar with as it provides another view on achieving greatness.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.
Anonymous

Posted April 8, 2010

Great Book!

Got me motivated to get my company on the right track. Just what I needed.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.
revd_up

Posted April 8, 2010

Good to Great well researched

Fascinating book that compares "good" companies to those that have soared to greatness, finding the commonalities and differences. Good resource for all business and non profit leaders.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.
lemme14

Posted March 19, 2010

more from this reviewer

I Also Recommend:

Excellent business book

Ever wonder how your company can make the leap from Good to Great? This book applies to everyone who wants to make a difference in their company and grow in their career. A few of the key points:

What makes a Level 5 leader? The Good to Great companies are all led by a Level 5 leader. This book will help you understand what a Level 5 leader is. First who, then what. I can't count the number of times I've seen a company hire just because they need to hire. It is very important to make sure you hire the right person. The hedgehog concept is an excellent philosophy. Knowing one big thing is to make your company great is much more important than knowing many smaller things.

These are just a of the topics that made this book great which is a must read.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.
Anonymous

Posted February 20, 2010

Great Business Sense

Found the information so useful, I went back to B&N and ordered a copy as a gift for an associate.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.
The_Best_Coach

Posted February 18, 2010

Informative

This is an educational and informative book on business. Great for MBA students as well as business professionals. However, the material may be a bit dated and may want to be updated with information of the current "Recession" and its relationship with business models.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.
Kentucky_reader

Posted January 31, 2010

Interesting look at companies that succeed contrasted with those that fail

This book is interesting, and gives some great contrasts between success and failure, and how leadership plays into the company's performance. I was impressed by the painstaking research.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.
Anonymous

Posted December 22, 2009

'Great' book!

This is a must read for any mba student as well as any professional. Easy to read too!
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.
Anonymous

Posted October 17, 2009

Great material

I used this book for an operations management course and found it to be informative. Anyone in management should read it, there is a lot of information on leaders that took their company to the next level.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.
Anonymous

Posted October 10, 2009

Very Inspiring

Great book on tape. Encouraging, inspiring, and motivating. Could not stop listening to it in the car. Bought the prequel-Built to Last- as well.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.
jfn37

Posted September 19, 2009

Very informative, thorough research and back up provided

I listened to the CD's twice, worth the time and money.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

If you find inappropriate content, please report it to Barnes & Noble

Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap...and Others Don't

Pick Up in Store

Available on NOOK devices and apps

All Available Formats + Editions

Customers Who Bought This Also Bought

More About This Book

Overview

Related Subjects

Editorial Reviews

From Barnes & Noble

Business Week

From The Critics

Product Details

Meet the Author

Jim Collins

Good To Know

Read an Excerpt

Chapter One

Good is the Enemy of Great

Interviews & Essays

Reading Group Guide

Rating Distribution

PRETTY AWFUL

Assigned Reading - Wasted Time

A book for the ages!

read together with 'enduring success'

This book has become a religion for me...

DO NOT READ!

The best business book ever

This is a must read book

Test

Get the right people on the bus first!

Great Book!

Good to Great well researched

Excellent business book

Great Business Sense

Informative

Interesting look at companies that succeed contrasted with those that fail

'Great' book!

Great material

Very Inspiring

Very informative, thorough research and back up provided