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One of the best research-driven books on the lasting nature of quality businesses. Should be a part of any future entrepreneur’s library.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
I read half, written to owners of companies not individuals. Funny that after our owner read this book he closed the doors on an established company that was doing well. He recked 75 people’s lives for this book. Adam G.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
This is a business book on how to measure greatness in a corporate structure and what items led up to a company being great. This is aimed at the male market but is good for both sexes to hear. If you were disappointed by this writers last book you will be happy to know he got his act together on this one. Numbers junkies sleep well, his techniques for defining great corporate structure are sound. One way for a company to be great is that the leaders are not social icons in big homes but they are just normal folks who look to do the best job possible. If you liked the book Millionaire Next Door you will see a lot of leadership skills that are similar. This is a good read but is far better on audio because the data gets a bit old for the average human. RICH CHICKS specializes in financial education for women and we read hundreds of books on personal finance every year! We have left many book reviews all over this site.Read full review
After reading this book I was not very impressed. Jim Collins started with a template and tried to find companies that would fit into his template. His leadership idea is nothing new and he could have taken all the leaders in the world and found stories that fit into his mold. His revelations are obnoxious and he spends about half the book talking about the good to great concept instead of using deep analysis to uncover some hidden truths. One of the greatest flaws of this book is how he took a good look at certain companies through interviews but he failed to study any of the accounting changes that effected some of the businesses he discusses. One of the most notable is Walgreen's and circuit city who were able to structure their leases in such a way that they did not have to disclose them on the balance sheet as assets or liabilities. Walgreens and Circuit City grew because their bankers didn't get the full picture of how much debt the company was able to take on under the table and not disclose. Now that these companies are forced to disclose that information they appear less solvent and their stock price has adjusted to reality. Additionally Circuit City tanked when the new accounting practices and bad economy showed how insolvent they really were. Other things Jim Collins failed to mention involved the establishment of right to work states that ended union control on companies and allowed NUCOR to establish one of the most efficient manufactures in the world. Most of the companies Jim talks about have fallen apart in heaps and are bad to average. He should have written a book about how little research he had to do to write a book that would get praise from the entire academic sector but be a complete bad to worse book at best. Don't buy the book! Save your money and take some accounting classes and you can then uncover what takes a company from good to great!Read full review
Jim Collins’ book, “Good to Great” is a summarization of 6 months of research and analysis of numerous companies’ financial data’s. After the research was completed Collins’ team discovered 11 companies that have exhibited various accomplishments to earn themselves a title of a “Good to Great” company. These companies’ stock returns were, all at one time, at or below the markets’. They then experience a growth until they registered stock returns three times that of the market, and were able to sustain this success for at least 15 years. These 11 exceptional companies where then compared to other companies in the same industry, that had the same or similar opportunities and had access to comparable resources. The bulk of the text is a synopsis of the concepts that enabled the good to great companies to achieve and sustain their success. The first concept is leadership. Collins uses levels to identify the better leaders. The highest level, 5, are leaders that display modesty, have the interests of the company ahead of their own. They are not flamboyant and focus on setting up successors for future success. They have a need to sustain results, will do whatever it takes to achieve greatness and look to themselves in failure. The next concept is “first who then what.” This concept explains how the good to great companies went out and found “good” people and got rid of the “bad” people, before discovering their core competency. These companies always used their best people for the biggest opportunity, instead of the biggest problem. Collins makes the comparison of companies with genius leaders who are surrounded by incompetent workers and cannot get anything done or done properly Another difference between the good to great companies and the others, are that the good to great companies were able to “confront brutal facts.” They understand their industries and realized they have problems and limitations that would hinder them from accomplishing various things; whether it is money, people or opportunity. Collins uses the example of A&P, who at one time were the second largest company in the country. A&P’s leaders did not face the fact that their industry was changing, because of greater demands for super stores, like Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart made the move, while A&P did not and the rest is history. For the “hedge hog” concept, Collins uses an insightful analogy of a hedge hog and a fox. The fox is never focused, when he sees another animal, he attacks, without hesitation or study. The hedge hog is focused and never leaves his burrow unless necessary and with proper defences. The good to great companies, or the hedge hogs, are focused on their issue. They ask themselves three questions; 1. What can we be the best in the world at? 2. What are we deeply passionate about? 3. What drives our economic engine? These three questions, which Collins calls the three “circles,” were the basis of which the good to great companies decided on what they would focus on. To ensure that the company’s people would follow these three circles, the good to great companies all show a strong culture of discipline. This does not mean; a tyrant disciplinarian. Rather it means; after getting “good” people, they themselves are guided by the consistent system of the three circles and operate freely within them.Read full review
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