Book Review: Good to Great - Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don't

Good to Great - Why some Companies make the leap and Others Dont By Jim Collins

What made Good to Great standout to me was how the book was based on years of collecting and studying data. Five years of research went into finding out what differentiates good companies from the great companies. Collins even put a section in the back of the book to answer the toughest critics most asked questions.

I was very impressed with how the book combined simple explanation, true stories and interviews to tie in the factorial finding all in an easy to follow format.

Here are some tid bites of information that I walked away with
Level 5 leaders primary ambition are the success of the company and not of themselves. This idea of person humility, a savvy business mind and strong work ethic gives this leaders an advantage over their ego centrical counterpart. A good leader knows that he can't make a company great by themselves and that they need to have a team that will stand with them. First who and than what, you need to concentrate on getting the right people on the bus and the wrong people off the bus before you can concentrate on where to take a company. If you can't trust that a person will do the job they were hired for, maybe they should be placed in a different position or maybe they are not in right for the company. We all need to Confront the Brutal Facts. For example we all know that our economy is not at its best. That is a fact, however we do know that one day the economy will start to get better. We need to rise above unrealistic optimism by acknowledge simple facts that are around us without forgetting that in the end you will prevail! You may not know when or where but at some point you will prevail. Once you have the right people then you can start evaluating if your company is staying true to its Hedgehog Concept, A hedgehog concept is simply three circles. Circle 1. Be the best in the world for what you do. Circle 2. Can your business economical support the idea and Circle 3 Are you passionate about the business at hand. The concept is so profoundly simple that it seems almost silly not to practice the hedgehog concept, dont you think.

I came away from reading this book Inspired and Motivated, Jim Collens gave me the tools and the hope to improve our business.
I look forward to hearing the ideas that you got out of this book as well.