Good to Great Book Review
Good to Great Book Review
Throughout the book Collins examines what differentiates a good company from a great company. This first chapter addresses the process of evaluating information and finding characteristics that differentiates the two types of companies. After finding these characteristics Collins’s team compared the data to a variety of companies and discovered what a great company had that a good company didn’t. “We came to think of our research effort as akin to looking inside a black box. Each step along the way was like installing another light bulb to shed light on the inner workings of the good to great process.”
All great companies have a Level 5 leader calling the shots. A level 5 leader is an individual who has a blend of extreme personal humility with intense professional will. They have a drive to make the company succeed and not themselves. A level 5 leader does not put his/her associates down to make themselves look better. Instead, a level 5 leader demonstrates modesty in what they are accomplishing and set up their successors for even greater success in the next generation which makes a company sustainable. A level 5 leader is a hard worker that looks to themselves when things go bad and not at other people to make excuses for why things are going bad. A level 5 leader looks to his/her associates when things are going great instead of taking all the credit. A level 5 leader knows the importance of his/her associates which brings us to first who… then what.
Most companies would think the first step in becoming a great would be to create a vision and a strategy, but this has not been proven true. The first step a company should take is determining who the right employees are, and which position in the company is right for them. This is a rigorous technique, which must always be applied. If you know you have a weak employee, you must revaluate their role in the company, which may be to switch to a more applicable position or maybe they
Throughout the book Collins examines what differentiates a good company from a great company. This first chapter addresses the process of evaluating information and finding characteristics that differentiates the two types of companies. After finding these characteristics Collins’s team compared the data to a variety of companies and discovered what a great company had that a good company didn’t. “We came to think of our research effort as akin to looking inside a black box. Each step along the way was like installing another light bulb to shed light on the inner workings of the good to great process.”
All great companies have a Level 5 leader calling the shots. A level 5 leader is an individual who has a blend of extreme personal humility with intense professional will. They have a drive to make the company succeed and not themselves. A level 5 leader does not put his/her associates down to make themselves look better. Instead, a level 5 leader demonstrates modesty in what they are accomplishing and set up their successors for even greater success in the next generation which makes a company sustainable. A level 5 leader is a hard worker that looks to themselves when things go bad and not at other people to make excuses for why things are going bad. A level 5 leader looks to his/her associates when things are going great instead of taking all the credit. A level 5 leader knows the importance of his/her associates which brings us to first who… then what.
Most companies would think the first step in becoming a great would be to create a vision and a strategy, but this has not been proven true. The first step a company should take is determining who the right employees are, and which position in the company is right for them. This is a rigorous technique, which must always be applied. If you know you have a weak employee, you must revaluate their role in the company, which may be to switch to a more applicable position or maybe they