Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t
An oldie, but goodie. Jim Collins, in his 2001 book, discusses how some companies make (and sustain) the leap to great companies, while others hover at good. I recently reread this nugget, to remind myself what makes a leader strong and successful.
Highly recommended for anyone serious about business, building or running a company. I can’t imagine you would be extremely successful without knowing what makes companies and their leaders more than just good.
In case you aren’t familiar with this work, Collin’s and his research team examined approximately 1400 companies to find ones that met their criteria; that they were an established company that had a transition point where they beat the market average by at least 3 times over a 15 year period. The conclusion was eleven companies, including Walgreens, Kroger’s, Abbott Labs, and Kimberley Clark. They then found comparison companies in the same industries who did not become great, in an effort to determine their differences and explain that greatness was not a result of industry growth. The similiarities between all the eleven great companies and differences between the great and comparison companies were they put into five solid chapters of solid proof on what makes a company great.
You can buy the book from Amazon here: Good to Great
You can buy the audio CD from Amazon here: Good to Great CD
The prequel to Good to Great, co-authored by Jim Collins: Built to Last
January 4, 2008 at 3:33 pm
I just wrote an entry on the “identity crisis” that many companies suffer from today- offering too many services/products without specializing in any one particular area.
Check it out:
http://papercutstar.wordpress.com/2008/01/03/position-yourself-as-an-expert-part-1-be-everything-to-someone-or-youll-be-nothing-to-everyone/
January 4, 2008 at 4:03 pm
Economies of scale have killed many companies in the U.S. Look at the auto industry. How many models does Honda have? I can name them on one hand. Now look at GM or Ford, how many models do they have? Studies have shown that fewer choices encourage consumers to make more choices.
As Henry Ford used to say “Any customer can have a car painted any colour that he wants so long as it is black”
January 7, 2008 at 3:17 pm
i read this book, it is a good one. but also, I strongly recommend to ICT entrepreneurs to read these books
1- Crossing the chasm (Geoffrey Moore)
2- Blue Ocean Strategy(W.Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne)
3- Red Ocean Strategy
4- Inside the Tornado (Geoffrey A. Moore)
5- Good to Great (Jim Collins)
6- Art of the Start (Guy Kawasaki)
7- Rules for Revolutionaries (Guy Kawasaki)
8- Made to Stick (Dan Heath & Chip Heath)