Book Review: Good to Great by Jim Collins

I don't normally like reading business books. As a subject, business just isn't that interesting, but Good to Great is one of the exceptions. The reason, I think, is that it deals with more than just business, but also touches a little bit on psychology and relationships, both of which can drive our work.

Jim Collins led a research team seeking to uncover the reason "why some companies make the leap...and others don't," which also happens to be the subtitle of the book. Collins and his team began by identifying 11 companies that, after years of being mediocre or decent companies, became great for a sustained period. I won't bore you with the details of how they defined a great company, since that's not the interesting part of the book. Once they had their great companies, along with a set of comparison companies that failed to become great, the Collins' team conducted extensive research to uncover what the great companies did differently than those that remained simply good (or worse).

The conclusions are best described as brilliantly simple, and, I guess I'm not too surprised to see, they are often principles I've been taught all my life. Very briefly, the concepts practiced by the companies that made the leap boiled down to these: strong but humble leadership that welcomed questions and conflict; getting the right people on board before determining direction; be completely and, if necessary, brutally honest; finding out what you are passionate about and what you can do better than anyone else; having discipline of thought and action; only invest in technology that will set you apart (I know I've phrased that poorly, but it comes down to refusing to chase after every new technology - a company should not be driven by the pursuit of fancy new toys); keep pushing - don't give up - and be positive if you know you're going the right direction. Many of these principles - humility, honesty, discipline, persistence - you might recognize from another old book we've all studied (amazing how that works!).

None of the "good to great" companies had leaders who acted as the savior or who tried to drive the organization with their brilliant ideas - that's the reason they brought the good people on board. None of the companies made excuses about being "second generation" or a bad economy or, in the case of Philip Morris, an increasingly hostile social attitude toward their industry. They simply faced reality.

Collins' writing was easy to understand and his illustrations were interesting and apt. I appreciated that they used quantitative research only to back up the qualitative. That is, they didn't focus on numbers, which can be easily twisted, to conjure up points they wanted to make. They kept the numbers in reserve until they had isolated a concept that was proven by the "good to great" companies.

Good to Great is well worth reading if you are interested in business or if you care about the business for which you work. It was the best book I've read in a long time.