Good to Great

What is required to go from Good to Great? It is said that anyone can be good, that hard part is knowing what to do to become great. Jim Collins spent more than 10 years studying and analyzing how great companies achieve superior performance. What he discovered about how these companies achieved greatness is broken down into 3 elements, each of which is broken down into 6 key concepts. I will list these below, but if you would like more detail on each of these, please refer to his book Good to Great. The good-to-great transition process looks a little like this: A. Disciplined people- Getting the right people in the business and then keeping them focused on excellence. a. Level 5 leadership: paradox, driven, build successors, share the praise, but take the blame in bad times, never larger than life, come from within. b. First “Who”, then “What.”: Concentrate on getting the right people on board, and then figure out what the most important objective should be. B. Disciplined thought: Being brutally honest about the facts and avoiding the temptation to get sidetracked on non-core ideas. a. Confront the true facts: Openly face the competitive realities of the markets in which they operate without losing faith that in the end, the company must prevail. b. Hedgehog Concept: Consistently stick to doing what they do best and avoid getting distracted into new fields. C. Disciplined Action – Realizing what is important to achieve and what isn’t. a. Culture of Discipline: Having disciplined people eliminates the need for a hierarchy. Combine a culture of discipline with an entrepreneurial ethic to generate a great marketplace performance. b. Technology Accelerator: Link technology with the hedgehog concept; they will adopt a new technology only if it accelerates their performance in the area they are passionate about. ~Elisa~