Book Review: Good to Great by Jim Collins

If you ask any business professional if they have read Good to Great, chances are they will say yes. After reading it, there is no doubt as to the reason it sold over five million copies. Anyone who reads this book will walk away with a lesson learned. Below are three lessons that can be applied to any company at any stage in their growth.

1)      Good is the Enemy of Great.

“The vast majority of companies never become great, precisely because the vast majority become quite good – and that is their main problem.”

Understanding the difference between good and great shows the mentality the Good to Great Leaders need to have to move into the arena of Great. It is completely human to be satisfied with the status quo, to live each day happy you are in the green. The Good to Great Leaders however recognized the difference and adjusted their mentality to match the goals and ambitions they had for their companies.

2)      Confront the Brutal Facts – Yet never lose faith.

“All good – to – great companies began the process of finding a path to greatness by confronting the brutal facts of their current reality.”

“When you start with an honest and diligent effort to determine the truth of your situation, the right decisions often become self-evident. It is impossible to make good decisions without infusing the entire process with an honest confrontation of the brutal facts.”

Laying out the current status of your company or team shows the starting point of the transition. Any change you wish to make as an entity has to start with the harsh reality of where you are today. The book lays out additional points to consider at this step in the process but understanding this is the starting point shows the honesty these Good to Great Leaders had to have in order to achieve their end goals.

3)      The Hedgehog Concept – Simplicity within the Three Circles

“Ancient Greek parable: ‘The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.’”

The parable describes the fox as being clever and cunning and has a multitude of ways to attack the hedgehog but rarely succeeds. The hedgehog, on the other hand, only has one way to defend itself but it is successful most of the time. This parable was used to describe what the Good to Great Leaders did when they were faced with an obstacle or were going through financial trouble. In times of trouble, focus on these tree questions and this will lead to becoming a hedgehog.

·       What you are deeply passionate about?

·       What drives our economic engine?

·       What you can be the best in the world at?