Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't

List Price: $27.50 Amazon.com Price: $19.25

• Media: Hardcover
• Publisher: HarperCollins (16 October, 2001)
• ISBN: 0066620996
• Average Customer Review: Based on 171 reviews.
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: 25
  

Collins explains that these traits are NOT characteristics of Good-to-Great companies, but rather practices of the laggards. Most authors describe a recent success story, but it usually amounts to nothing more than ego, charisma, opinion, or implementation of the latest fad. Collins, instead, provides references to thousands of pages of documented research to PROVE his point.

Collins describes how 11 mediocre companies, across different industries and over various time periods, implemented similar practices to drastically outperform the market and transform themselves into great companies.


Not a Sequel to "Built to Last"

REVIEW: How do you become "great"? Well, you study what the great do and emulate them. That's the point of "Good to Great". This book answers the question, "How does a good company become a great company?" The research team found 11 companies that met their stringent stock performance criteria exemplifying "good to great". Then they collected, filtered and studied tons of data on these companies and determined the patterns that explain how they became great companies. They distilled their findings in a fairly simple, easy to understand model having six components. I'm very often disappointed with models used is business books (note: this is not just a business book) but the models used here seemed natural and didn't come off as forced or too clever. While the book is based on very in-depth research, it does not read like a research report. The author has done an excellent job at bridging the gap between first rate research and a mass market audience. Many best sellers are "fad" books - this one is not. Highly recommended for those interested in organizational excellence.

STRENGTHS: Collin's writing is very interesting and easy to read with lots of real world examples and anecdotes. The book is a quick read and many readers will finish it within a weekend. While based on lots of research, the book does not read like a boring textbook. The authors conclusions are delivered simply and concisely and chapters are summed up in key points.

WEAKNESSES: Minor but: Too much focus on stock price as a measure of greatness (but what alternative was there?). Charts are misleading because they are not logarithmic (distorts true performance). Found the repeated phrase "If you would have put $1 into ___ in 19xx you would have $__ annoying.

WHO SHOULD READ THIS BOOK: All managers, executives, and leaders of any type of organization as well as those others interested in organizational excellence.

ALSO CONSIDER: Of course, Built to Last by J Collins & J Porras. Also, most themes in Good to Great have a lot of similarity to concepts of Peter Drucker - see for example, Managing for Results and On the Profession of Management.

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