Name of the Book: - Good to Great
Author: - Jim Collins
No of Chapters: -09
Number of Pages: - 260
Single sentence description of Book: - What takes for a company to transform from
Good to Great
What this book is about: - Book is a research work of author and it’s team,
how some companies are able to transform
themselves from normal Good to Great in a duration of time, while others
struggles. Author compares these companies with good companies in terms of
returns they had given to investors in a time period of more than 15 years.
After application of predefined set of constraints, author came up with a list
of 11 companies which provided returns in range of 3 to 19 times above the
market returns. Some of the prominent names from the list are Abbott, Circuit city,
Fannie Mae, Kroger, Kimberly-Clark etc. Author has prepared the process diagram
to indicate the transformation of companies from Good to Great. First step in
the above process is about the Leadership who look out of window to attribute
success to factors other than themselves. He explained how leaders of great
companies set up their successors for even greater success in next generation,
whereas egocentric leaders often sent up their successors for failure. Next
step in the process of transformation from good to great is by getting the
right people on the bus, who will figure where to drive it. This step lays more
focus on “Who” before “What” in the process of transformation. Third step on
the path of greatness in a company is by confronting the brutal facts of their
reality. This steps involves the creation of culture wherein people have a
tremendous opportunity to be heard and, ultimately, for the truth to be heard.
Fourth step in the process of transformation is understanding of three
intersecting circles (What you are deeply passionate about, what you can be the
best in the world at and what drives your economic engine) translated into a
simple, crystalline concept(the Hedgehog concept). Fifth step in the process of
the transformations lays importance on culture of discipline in a company for
sustained growth. This step is about getting the disciplined people who engage
in disciplined thought and who then take disciplined action. In the last step
of transformation, author explained the importance of technology accelerators during
the process. Author explained the good to great organizations generally avoid
technology fags and bandwagons, yet they become pioneers in the application of
technology by carefully selecting technologies related to their domain of working.
Author provided valuable insights on how just mere application of technologies could
lead to decline of the good companies.
Overall
Review: - Book is a great collection of research work on how
some companies are able to beat the market by great margin by application of
core concepts. Application of process thoughts described by Author on good to
great companies can only make them built to last companies, otherwise they will
fall out of growth process. Excellent and recommended book for reading.
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