good to great excerpt

Good to Great – Jim Collins

Excerpt created by Martijn Sjoorda

© 2008

Good to GreatJim Collins

Central Theme:

Can a good company become great, and if so, how?

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

See this book on Amazon »

The concept

The lessons

• Old and new economy: – No difference. It’s about timeless issues

• Old change paradigms are broken down:– No point in large scale “communication”

driven cycles– Large mechanistic change teams

Level 5 leadershipYou can accomplish anything in life, provided that you do not mind who gets the credits. Harry Truman

• Level 5: Executive : builds enduring greatness through a paradoxical blend of personal humility and profesional will.

Level 4: Effective leader

Level 3: Competent manager

Level 2: Contributing team member

Level 1: Highly capable individual

• Level 5: can channel their ego, are very ambitious for the institution, not themselves

• Key compentences are:

Humility + Will = level 5

Law 1: Level 5

• Lesson: set up successor for success (not failure)

• Will HumilityResults, catalist Compelling modesty

Do what is needed Acts with cal determination

Set the standards Channels ambition

Looks in the mirror looks out the window

for poor results to credit

• More plow horse than show horse

Law 2: First who than what There are times you cannot wait for somebody. You’re either on the bus or off the bus.

Lessons:

• First choose the people and then the road• Create a team, not a genius with a thousand helpers• People are not your most important asset, the right people are.• Be rigourous in this issue, act

Law 3: Face the brutal factsThere is no worse mistake in public leadership than to hold out false hopes soon to be swept away. Churchill

• Continuously refining the path• Create the climate for great performance

– lead with Q’s not A’s– Engage in dialogue and debate– Conduct autopsy without blame– Build red flag mechanisms

• Stockdale paradox:– retain faith that you can and will prevail in the end and at the same

time face the brutal facts of the current reality

Law 4: the Hedgehog conceptKnow thyself, Scribes of Delphi

Law 4: the Questions to be deeply understood

Law 5: Culture of discipline

Law 6: Technology acceleratorsMost men would rather die, than think. Many do. Bertrand Russel

• The real question is not what is the role of technology but rather how do you think differently about technology?

• Become pioneers in the application of carefully selected technologies

The Fly Wheel and the Doom Loop• ‘Good-to-great’ transformations internally feel cumulative

and organic and externally as revolutionary• No killer innovation, no wonder moment, no1 1 action, no

huge programmes• Consistent building, no big breakthroughs, just like setting

a flywheel in motion• Not investing energy in “motivating the troops or

“managing” change• Competitors: the doom loop, looking for straight

breakthoughs and stretching, usually with heavy M & A activity.

The Challenge

From built to last to good-to-great...

Want to talk?

• Martijn Sjoorda martijn.sjoorda@whyconsulting.nl

+31 614908830 www.whyconsulting.nl • Or check out our facebook page:

www.facebook.com/WhyConsulting