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Good to Great Summary
About Good to Great Book
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?
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Level 5 Leadership
Level 5 leaders channel their ego needs away from themselves and into the larger goal of building a great company. It’s not that Level 5 leaders have no ego or self-interest. Indeed, they are incredibly ambitious— but their ambition is first and foremost for the institution, not themselves.
Level 5 leadership is not just about humility and modesty. It is equally about ferocious resolve, an almost stoic determination to do whatever needs to be done to make the company great.
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Being Ruthless Or Rigorous
The Key To Greatness: Start with the right people, ask them the right questions, and engage them in vigorous debate.
- To be ruthless means hacking and cutting, especially in difficult times, or wantonly firing people without any thoughtful consideration.
- To be rigorous means consistently applying exacting standards at all times and at all levels, especially in upper management.
To be rigorous, not ruthless, means that the best people need not worry about their positions and can concentrate fully on their work.
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Confront The Facts But Don’t Lose Faith
The moment a leader allows himself to become the primary reality people worry about, rather than reality being the primary reality, you have a recipe for mediocrity, or worse. This is one of the key reasons why less charismatic leaders often produce better long-term results than their more charismatic counterparts.
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Through extensive research and case studies, this book offers timeless insights for leaders seeking to transform their organizations into enduring successes.
Introduction
Collins and his research team conducted a comprehensive study of companies to identify what separates truly great companies from merely good ones. The book provides valuable insights into leadership and organizational strategies that have led companies to sustain remarkable success over the long term.
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Level 5 Leadership
"Good to Great" begins by debunking the idea that charisma and celebrity CEOs are key to greatness. Instead, it highlights the importance of Level 5 Leadership, characterized by humility and unwavering commitment to the organization's success. These leaders channel their ambition into the company, not their own personal advancement.
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Hedgehog Concept
The book also introduces the concept of the Hedgehog Concept, which emphasizes the importance of focusing on what you can be the best in the world at, what drives your economic engine, and what you are deeply passionate about. This concept helps leaders make critical decisions about their organizations' direction.
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"Good to Great" by Jim Collins reveals the secrets behind transforming good companies into truly exceptional ones. Drawing on extensive research, Collins presents a framework for achieving sustainable greatness. Through compelling stories and practical insights, this book empowers individuals and organizations to make conscious choices and cultivate disciplined strategies for long-term success.
"Greatness is not a function of circumstance. Greatness, it turns out, is largely a matter of conscious choice and discipline."
JIM COLLINS
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Good Is The Enemy Of Great
- Embrace the mindset of continuous improvement and avoid settling for mediocrity.
- Challenge the status quo and strive for greatness in all aspects of life, not just in business.
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Level 5 Leadership
- Explore the qualities of Level 5 leaders: humility, determination, and a focus on the success of the organization over personal achievements.
- Understand the power of leadership that inspires and motivates teams to achieve extraordinary results.
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Books I love
Books that's shift my thinking
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Finding sweet spot on my work and home life is the most importing thing for me. I believe we do not emphasize enough to the new generations how important it is to choose wisely their career. We should start saying it firstly "Don't forget, you will spend the next 30-40 years (or more) on this job for 8-9 hours a day. Think harder."
How to find what is best for your future career? (The Hedgehog Concept by Jim Collins)
You're wondering what you should do next, or how you could make your current job more challenging or meaningful?
Try Hedgehog Concept.
Why hedgehog? Because, as in ancient Greek parable “The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.”
Create a Venn diagram as on the image and check intersection of three circles:
1) What you are deeply passionate about,
2) What you can be the best in the world at, and
3) What best drives your economic or resource engine.
This is for understanding of what you can be the best at.
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