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Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't
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Sales rank 67
Customers rating (based on 752 reviews)
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The Challenge Built to Last, the defining management study of the nineties, showed how great companies triumph over time and how long-term sustained performance can be engineered into the DNA of an enterprise from the verybeginning. But what about the company that is not born with great DNA? How can good companies, mediocre companies, even bad companies achieve enduring greatness? The Study For years, this question preyed on the mind of Jim Collins. Are there companies that defy gravity and convert long-term mediocrity or worse into long-term superiority? And if so, what are the universal distinguishing characteristics that cause a company to go from good to great? The Standards Using tough benchmarks, Collins and his research team identified a set of elite companies that made the leap to great results and sustained those results for at least fifteen years. How great? After the leap, the good-to-great companies generated cumulative stock returns that beat the general stock market by an average of seven times in fifteen years, better than twice the results delivered by a composite index of the world's greatest companies, including Coca-Cola, Intel, General Electric, and Merck. The Comparisons The research team contrasted the good-to-great companies with a carefully selected set of comparison companies that failed to make the leap from good to great. What was different? Why did one set of companies become truly great performers while the other set remained only good? Over five years, the team analyzed the histories of all twenty-eight companies in the study. After sifting through mountains of data and thousands of pages of interviews, Collins and his crew discovered the key determinants of greatness -- why some companies make the leap and others don't. The Findings The findings of the Good to Great study will surprise many readers and shed light on virtually every area of management strategy and practice. The findings include: Level 5 Leaders: The research team was shocked to discover the type of leadership required to achieve greatness. The Hedgehog Concept (Simplicity within the Three Circles): To go from good to great requires transcending the curse of competence. A Culture of Discipline: When you combine a culture of discipline with an ethic of entrepreneurship, you get the magical alchemy of great results. Technology Accelerators: Good-to-great companies think differently about the role of technology. The Flywheel and the Doom Loop: Those who launch radical change programs and wrenching restructurings will almost certainly fail to make the leap.“Some of the key concepts discerned in the study,” comments Jim Collins, "fly in the face of our modern business culture and will, quite frankly, upset some people.” Perhaps, but who can afford to ignore these findings?
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| Publisher | Collins Business | | Release date | 10/2001 | | Availability | Usually ships in 24 hours | | Edition | Hardcover |
| | List price | $29.99 | | Our price | $17.99 (you save 40.01%) | | Used price | from $6.33 |
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 A must read for top management
Although I'm just in the first few chapters of this book, I've found it very useful. Mr. Collins and his teams have a very interesting approach to what makes a good and a great company. I've seen so many big companies that at the most can be considered good (although I wouldn't mind calling them mediocre - even though I'm talking of companies that every year makes millions of dollars). This Big company generally are satisfied by making good profits and boy are they good. But they're not great, not as good they could be. This book is a definitely eye opener, and every CEO and all top management should grab a copy,
...and the Unabridged Audio CD is even better
I could echo the hundreds of examples of positive feedback from other reviewers of the hardcover edition, which I also own, but I'd like to add comments regarding features unique to the 2005 unabridged audio recording, Good to Great CD: Why Some Companies Make the Leap...And Others Don't, which I found made it an exceptional purchase.
The author does an excellent job of putting the book into audio format. Rather than simply read the book verbatim, he adds bits of commentary and changes a few words where necessary because he recognizes that people don't hear the same way we read. Don't misunderstand--the vast majority of the audio is straight from the book, but the author comes across more as if he's SPEAKING to an audience, with the vocal inflections and emphasis that you'd expect from a good speaker, and even repeats key points to make sure you grasp just how important they are.
There are multiple audio versions of this title available, and the most recent version, from 2005 (four years after the publication of the original book), provides significant additional value to the listener. The author makes numerous comments throughout the audio, sometimes at great length, about lessons learned since the original book's publication. It was this additional content that I found to be of great value to me. Although the audio wasn't recorded today, the years between the book's publication and the audio recording allow Collins to reflect on the book's findings and reasons that some of the book's good-to-great companies may have faltered somewhat in the time since the study's conclusion. This was of significance because this very question might enter the reader's mind (as it did mine), and his explanations show that the lessons learned by the actions of the good-to-greats during their transition are still 100% valid, and that failures of the great companies come as a result of their failing to stay true to the practices that led them to greatness in the first place.
Overall, I found the additional content in the 2005 unabridged audio recording to be well worth the small additional expense. The author's skill in conveying his message through audio are consistent with the quality of the study upon which the book is based and with the author's ability to translate the study's findings into a well-organized, easily understood text. An excellent work by Jim Collins.
Great Book!
I was referred to this book by a friend and now I am thanking him. With each chapter I found myself reflecting on my own companies and seeing how I can tranform the company from Good to Great. Since finishing the book (on cd) I find myself everyday thinking about aspects of the knowledge I learned. In a couple weeks I will listen again. I enjoyed the cd read by the author as I found Jim Collins an easy listen. I will be ordering other Collins books soon.
What's Beyond Great?
I speak all over the country--in almost every presentation, I mention Good to Great. Based on a study that took five years to complete; Collins studied 28 companies. He then identified 11 of them that transitioned from good to great. It's about leadership; it's about dealing with mediocrity; it's about breaking rules and stepping on feet when necessary.
This isn't light reading... but if you are in management and leadership anywhere, this book should be one of your reads.
Dr. Judith Briles, author of
Stabotage! How to Deal with the Pit Bulls, Skunks, Snakes, Scorpions & Slugs in the Health Care Workplace
Don't order from Famous Books
I never received my order, and it is so old now that Amazon does not even consider it a "recent order". I have received no responses from the seller, and the way this Amazon thing is set up, I don't know if I will ever receive a refund for the $73+ that I paid for 5 copies of what I believe to be a great book. Think carefully before ordering through Amazon and definately before ordering from Famous Books. You may have no recourse or protection from Amazon at all.
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