Good to Great: A Study of Management Strategies of Companies with Lasting Growth Hardcover – October 16, 2001

Good to Great by Jim Collins is a compelling and informative book about how to be successful, and how to stay successful. The theme of success is shown through 11 companies who start out less or equal to share-market value, then sky rocket to a substantial increase becoming a “great” company, which in terms of Collins, at least three times the market over a consistent span of 15 years. By using a consistent level of market value increase as an indicator for success, the word “Great” used in this book has minimal bias and maximum meaning to the word itself; it’s not just someone’s opinion of just saying, ‘Oh yeah. My company is great!’ This book was written in 2001, so in between then and 2017, there are a few companies that decline from greatness after being written and proclaimed great in this book; I am very interested to see why some of Collins’ companies that were great, turn back into mediocre and bankrupt companies. Although there are some failed companies after being deemed great, the credibility and accuracy of the results found within Collins’ research remain true.This book is very well laid out, divided into easy to follow chapters that flow one right into the other; I found myself reading over 20 pages at a time without noticing until I took a break! Collins establishes the framework of success through three stages known as: disciplined people, disciplined thought, and disciplined action. Within each of these stages comes two key concepts that build off of each other: Level 5 Leadership, First Who Then What, Confront the Brutal Facts, The Hedgehog Concept, Culture of Discipline, and Technology Accelerators.Collins does not shy away from starting off strong in his book, saying “Greatness is not a function of circumstance. Greatness, it turns out, is largely a matter of conscious choice” (pg. 11). I found this quote profound because I believe that in order to make something more than just mediocre, one must be in an above-mediocre mindset. As an Industrial Engineer, I feel the need to have this mindset of greatness, in order to not only make a product, system, or company good, but GREAT. There are multiple layers found within this book where I could relate many of these proposed tools for a great company into using these tools to gauge for a great life. Even if you are not an Industrial Engineer, or any type of engineer for the matter, not an entrepreneur striving for success, not a CEO of a business trying to take a leap of faith into a huge growth of progress, I believe this book is still a GREAT read for any person! There are numerous lessons within this book that can be relatable to not only business, but everyday life. There is a whole chapter dedicated to figuring out who the right people should be going along with a company, then figuring out where to go with the company; First Who Then What. The First Who Then What shows why setting the correct priorities in any situation is important, and can be related to everyday life by knowing who to let into your life that will help you grow, and who to let go of; once you have the right “team” in your life, then you can figure out What you want to accomplish. Once the tools of greatness has been addressed, Collins completes his book by encouraging the reader to find greatness in all parts of one’s life; “As your work moves to greatness, so does your life,” (pg. 210).For these reasons already stated, I would highly recommend others to adapt a culture of discipline (also a main idea from the book) to read and get acquainted with Good to Great and keep their passions and lives GREAT.

Jim Collins states in his book, "Good is the enemy of great. And that is one of the key reasons why we have so little that become great...We believe that almost any organization can substantially improve its stature and performance, perhaps even become great, if it conscientiously applies the frame work of ideas we've uncovered." After reading that statement I became very curious and wanting to continue reading to see what are the components that make a good company to be a great company, in hopes of maybe being apply it myself one day I really enjoyed the way in which Collins organized the book. From his five year research study of 28 different companies Good to Great discusses key critical concepts revealed through his studies as to why some companies became successful great companies, while the others continued to be good. Collins found from his research within a great company you will have discipline people, with discipline thought, drives discipline actions. Within each discipline it is broken down into a subset of two components:I. Discipline Peoplea. Level 5 Leadershipb. First Who... Then WhatII. Discipline Thoughta. Confront the Brutal factsb. Hedgehog ConceptsIII. Discipline Actiona. Culture of Disciplineb. Technology AcceleratorsI believe by organizing the book in this matter enabled me to really understand the severity of the critical components and how their relationships if applied will in allow a good company to become a great company. Starting with Discipline People, Collins conducted and analyzed his research by introducing the types of leaders you would find in a great company versus those in a just a good company and the characteristics that these great leaders possessed, such as humility and will. They lead with the interest of the company and not for their own selfish reasoning. Next was the First Who ...Then what which discuss getting the right people on board and the wrong people out. Collins states, "People are not your most important assets. The right people are." Collins stresses the importance of first getting the right people in the right places in your company and weeding out the wrong and then figure out where your company wants to go.Next is the Discipline Thought, within the subset of discipline thought a company must possess the ability to confront the brutal facts and not live in denial. Being able to do this will allow the company to stay updated and proactive when faced with making decisions. Collins presented a methodology for the companies to be able to face the truth. He says an organization must lead with questions not answers, engage in dialogue and debate, and use the "red flag mechanism" where anything that is red flagged is information that cannot be ignored and must be handled immediately. Collins also mentioned under the category of discipline thought is the Hedgehog Concept. The Hedgehog Concept is about a Fox and Hedgehog, where the Fox (good companies) knows a lot about variety of things whereas the Hedgehog (great companies) knew a lot about one thing. Being hedgehog is more beneficial for both the company and the individual because it the clarity drives focus and direction whereas the fox has neither one direction nor focus which can backfire later down the road.Lastly, having discipline people with discipline thoughts will drive to discipline action which uses the culture of discipline and technology as another tool to help transform the company from good to great. Collins also refers to the Flywheel Concept. He says that a good to great company never happens all at once it take a lot of effort and time to get it going, like the flywheel. The flywheel requires a lot of pushing to get it to turn and after x amount of time it will begin to gain momentum.Throughout the book Collins gives great examples for each discipline and its component and how it either went from good to great or continued to be good. Along with the examples Collins provides pleather of diagrams and charts in the appendix, which becomes a great reference for the reader and creates a better understanding of what is needed to go from a good company to a great company. Generally the book is a very easy read which makes it that much more interesting to want to apply to your company or even for yourself. It takes the feeling of the impossible away, like Collin stated, "We believe that almost any organization can substantially improve its stature and performance, perhaps even become great, if it conscientiously applies the frame work of ideas we've uncovered." Overall if you are looking to transform your company, Good to Great is a read that I highly recommend.