Sunday, October 23, 2022

Book Review - Good to Great by Jim Collins


Books worth enough to share your life with -
"Good to Great" by Jim Collins

This is like a book '7 habits of highly effective people' applied to companies! It traces progress of ~1500 companies to come up with 11 which beat competition consistently for 15 years in his research.

And filtered the 'reason why' into a behaviour model of 'Good to Great' shown in the picture split into disciplined people, desciplined thought, desciplined action. 

Apart from doggedness to keep at doing things, he defines discipline around 'clarity and focus' which is a gem nuance. wavering strategy or doing multiple things, back and forth is example of indiscipline.

The #audible version has voice of author himself and the way he narrates the book, he is so passionate in his work, it seems as if you are part of the discussion! Must listen.

However, apart from the company's behaviour aspects; i felt same can be applied to individuals in thier lives & careers -

1. Level 5 #leadership - A humble but firm leadership behaviour. Not flamboyant, not charming but simple people with no egos dedicated to the objective. None of these companies have those celeb leaders!

2. First who, then what - While embarking on a vision, its important yo figure who is on the bus (like-minded) & then decide to what to do next. Else, you falter easily as people leave the bus if mis-aligned.

3. Confront the brutal facts - Running away from reality doesnt help. And quoting future vision without confronting reality is like ostrich with his neck under sand.

4. Hedgehog concept - This is crux of this book. We should figure the intersection of 
-what we are passionate about, 
-what are our skills/talent that we are good at, and
-what is our economic engine ( how we can make money out of the two by figuring a matket and a metric that uniquely drives us to the vision)

5. Culture of #descipline, not hierarchical. Descipline by auto mode vs forced; enabled by disciplined thinking and disciplined control. No bureaucracy.

6. #Technology as accelerator, not as 'the' thing to change fortunes. First figure hedgehog concept and then apply technology if it helps you accelerate the focus via hedgehog. For eg. Clarity of thought boosted by tech is a dangerous thing.

7. #Flywheel - The good to great transformation is not like a revolution, its like slow and steady evolution. It builds up turn by turn on a steering wheel till you pass through a breakthrough. Its like a decade long overnight sensation!
Loved it to the core. Become a fan of Jim Collins. Its like those re-reads kind of books.

Which #book have you loved recently? Share your recommendations for a business book for my next read.

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