Good to Great

The learnings from this book have helped us so many times to make good decisions for our coaching business. Two concepts in particular have stood out: The Hedgehog Concept and Stockdale Paradox from this book are alive in us every day.

The Hedgehog Concept is the intersection between three circles: 1) What can you be best in the world at? 2) What drives the economic engine? 3) What are you deeply passionate about?

The Stockdale Paradox is to always retain the faith that you will prevail in the end, regardless of difficulties, while confronting the brutal fact of your current… show more.

This was one of the first books I was recommended to read when I started business coaching, and I was so glad that I did. Jim Collin's research is second to none and resonated so much with my own experience of building successful businesses.

His conclusions are simple to understand and apply to any business, and this is why I use them whenever possible with the businesses I own and coach. From his Hedgehog principle to the focus on vision, values, and purpose, getting the right team on the bus, and making sure you can be passionate, profitable, and the… show more.

Carefully read (and read again, and then read at least a third and fourth time) both books by Jim Collins. He's rightly famous for his masterful distillation of the core qualities and strategies of the world's most successful organizations.

Once you understand key concepts like "Getting the Right People on the Bus" and what your "20-mile March" really is, and you have the grit to keep trying to apply the concepts and work through mistakes and sticking points, you will be able to lead your organization to new heights of growth and impact, when so many other organizations struggle just… show more.

I like the redemptive quality of this book. Moving from mediocre, merely good companies to great ones is not a function of organizational DNA but of holding fast to certain traits and practices.

Collins and his research team’s rigorous analysis provides a detailed analysis of the key factors that propelled 11 companies from so-so to exceptional. He begins with leadership, “Level 5 Leadership,” which squares with my own approach to organizational change, which happens first with the top executive team.

The eight key factors that he identifies are essential building blocks for any organization wanting to transition from business as… show more.

This book keeps companies focused on what’s important.

It walks through how to hire for character, and ways to think about hiring the right kind of leaders who can develop skills (rather than the other way around), and building a company from that strong foundation. For pricing and building pricing power, it’s important to know what your company’s core capabilities are and to stay hyper-focused on them.

As leaders challenge themselves to innovate, the book emphasizes using technology to execute your core capabilities more effectively, without chasing the technology (e.g. AI) and losing sight of your core value.

One of the best business books ever on the things a business and its executives have to do to reach the pinnacle of a quality business. Note that while they don’t all stay there, there are elements a company must do to be great. When those elements are no longer followed, the companies do decline but this book outlines the keys on which to focus.

It’s as “simple” as the author’s points, “Good is the enemy of great. And this is one of the key reasons why we have so little that becomes great.” And “Few people attain great lives,… show more.

I believe this is absolutely the very best book about leadership ever written. 

If you are only going to read one book about leadership this is it. Every aspiring leader should read it and keep a copy close at hand. The book begins with the profound statement: “Good is the enemy of great.”   Only the very best most disciplined leaders have the will to aspire to greatness. 

Based on extensive research, Collins shares how leaders with discipline create great organizations that achieve phenomenal results. It isn’t easy, but the book provides a road map for leaders with the will and… show more.

I believe it’s important for aspiring artists of any ilk to realize that the arts are a business. You may be anticipating a career in education, where you’ll need negotiating, supervisory, and budget skills, or as a freelance artist where you’ll need to understand contracts and accounting, and so on.

Good to Great provides excellent insights to the world of big business successes which you can use to further your own career.

This book shows what it takes to transition from an average (good) organization to becoming a great organization.  With specific data and analysis of organizations that have successfully made this transition, Jim Collins masterfully illustrates the culture, character, leadership, and management that was necessary to become “great”! What I loved in Jim Collin’s assessment, is that the CEO’s who successfully made this transition were not rabble-rouser leaders with flamboyant personalities. They were strategic leaders with a vision that everyone identified with, who created a culture defined by the values of their organization, and who persevered through all challenges and adversity. 

The rigorous depth of Jim Collins’s research is impressive. What’s even more impressive is how he makes his research findings so interesting. I recommend this book mainly because of Collins’s concept of the Level 5 Leader: the self-effacing yet courageous captain with “personal humility and professional will,” who prioritizes results over ego. The story of Darwin Smith, mild-mannered CEO of Kimberly-Clark who led the transformation of that hidebound paper company from merely good to truly great, is both inspiring and instructive.