| |
| |
|
Book Reviews Information |
|
|
|
Book Summary: Good To Great
Explore what goes into a company's transformation from mediocre to excellent. Based on hard evidence and volumes of data, the book author (Jim Collins) and his team uncover timeless principles on how the good-to-great companies like Abbott, Circuit City, Fannie Mae, Gillette, Kimberly-Clark, Kroger, Nucor, Philip Morris, Pitney Bowes, Walgreens, and Wells Fargo produced sustained great results and achieved enduring greatness, evolving into companies that were indeed 'Built to Last'. The Collins team selected 2 sets of comparison companies: a. Direct comparisons - Companies in the same industry with the same resources and opportunities as the good-to-great group but showed no leap in performance, which were: Upjohn, Silo, Great Western, Warner-Lambert, Scott Paper, A&P, Bethlehem Steel, RJ Reynolds, Addressograph, Eckerd, and Bank of America. b. Unsustained comparisons - Companies that made a short-term shift from good to great but failed to maintain the trajectory, namely: Burroughs, Chrysler, Harris, Hasbro, Rubbermaid, and Teledyne Wisdom In A Nutshell: a. Ten out of eleven good-to-great company leaders or CEOs came from the inside. They were not outsiders hired in to 'save' the company. They were either people who worked many years at the company or were members of the family that owned the company. b. Strategy per se did not separate the good to great companies from the comparison groups. c. Good-to-great companies focus on what Not to do and what they should stop doing. d. Technology has nothing to do with the transformation from good to great. It may help accelerate it but is not the cause of it. e. Mergers and acquisitions do not cause a transformation from good to great. f. Good-to-great companies paid little attention to managing change or motivating people. Under the right conditions, these problems naturally go away. g. Good-to-great transformations did not need any new name, tagline, or launch program. The leap was in the performance results, not a revolutionary process. h. Greatness is not a function of circumstance; it is clearly a matter of conscious choice. i. Every good-to-great company had "Level 5" leadership during pivotal transition years, where Level 1 is a Highly Capable Individual, Level 2 is a Contributing Team Member, Level 3 is the Competent Manager, Level 4 is an Effective Leader, and Level 5 is the Executive who builds enduring greatness through a paradoxical blend of personal humility and professional will. j. Level 5 leaders display a compelling modesty, are self-effacing and understated. In contrast, two thirds of the comparison companies had leaders with gargantuan personal egos that contributed to the demise or continued mediocrity of the company. k. Level 5 leaders are fanatically driven, infected with an incurable need to produce sustained results. They are resolved to do whatever it takes to make the company great, no matter how big or hard the decisions. l. One of the most damaging trends in recent history is the tendency (especially of boards of directors) to select dazzling, celebrity leaders and to de-select potential Level 5 leaders. m. Potential Level 5 leaders exist all around us, we just have to know what to look for. n. The research team was not looking for Level 5 leadership, but the data was overwhelming and convincing. The Level 5 discovery is an empirical, not ideological, finding. o. Before answering the "what" questions of vision and strategy, ask first "who" are the right people for the team. p. Comparison companies used layoffs much more than the good-to-great companies. Although rigorous, the good-to-great companies were never ruthless and did not rely on layoffs or restructuring to improve performance. q. Good-to-great management teams consist of people who debate vigorously in search of the best answers, yet who unify behind decisions, regardless of parochial interests. r. There is no link between executive compensation and the shift from good to great. The purpose of compensation is not to 'motivate' the right behaviors from the wrong people, but to get and keep the right people in the first place. s. The old adage "People are your most important asset" is wrong. People are not your most important asset. The right people are. t. Whether someone is the right person has more to do with character and innate capabilities than specific knowledge, skills or experience. u. The Hedgehog Concept is a concept that flows from the deep understanding about the intersection of the following three circles: 1.What you can be best in the world at, realistically, and what you cannot be best in the world at 2.What drives your economic engine 3.What you are deeply passionate about v. Discover your core values and purpose beyond simply making money and combine this with the dynamic of preserve the core values - stimulate progress, as shown for example by Disney. They have evolved from making short animated films, to feature length films, to theme parks, to cruises, but their core values of providing happiness to young and old, and not succumbing to cynicism remains strong. w. Enduring great companies don't exist merely to deliver returns to shareholders. In a truly great company, profits and cash flow are absolutely essential for life, but they are not the very point of life. "IF YOU'RE DOING SOMETHING YOU CARE DEEPLY ABOUT AND IF YOU BELIEVE IN IT, IT'S IMPOSSIBLE TO IMAGINE NOT TRYING TO MAKE IT GREAT." By: Regine P. Azurin and Yvette Pantilla http://www.bizsum.com "A Lot Of Great Books....Too Little Time To Read" Free Book Summaries Of Latest Bestsellers and More! mailto:freenewsletter@bizsum.com BusinessSummaries is a BusinessSummaries.com service. (c) Copyright 2001-2005, BusinessSummaries.com Regine Azurin is the President of a company that provides business book summaries of the latest bestsellers for busy executives and entrepreneurs.
MORE RESOURCES:
Book-Reviews - Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Sorat and the Modern Day Evil "Sorat's evil will be spread by his infernal army of soulless followers, willing to give their lives for his pleasure in subjecting mankind to horror of the ultimate magnitude."The above mentioned quote summarizes one of the main themes in Hearne's political thriller, "Hulagu's Web". Call Me Mommy - Book Review Retired police captain, Marshall Frank, has written another excellent read in his latest work, Call Me Mommy. Marshall is definitely a prolific writer - he has authored five books and hundreds of short stories and essays to date. A Coaching Book Review Win-Win Partnerships - Be on the Leading Edge with Synergistic CoachingWin-Win Partnerships takes Coaching and Partnering to a new level. This book explores much more than employer/employee relationships. Book Excerpt: Give Me a Home Where the Dairy Cows Roam -- 5 May-Day!The school bus had long since disappeared over the last hill toward the main road one afternoon when I set my books on the kitchen table and hurried into the living room to talk to my mother.Mom was sitting in her favorite easy chair by the picture window, and her crutches were laid neatly on the floor next to the chair where she could reach them. Book Review: What Color Is Your Parachute? What Color is Your Parachute? Reviewed by: Matt Keegan © 2003, Matthew C. Keegan, LLCFinding a job today presents unique challenges that did not exist five years ago. Putting it on Paper - Book Review "Dawn Josephson, author of 14 books, has written a fantastic author resource with her latest book Putting it on Paper - The ground rules for creating promotional pieces that sell books. This book discusses the development and use of contents within a media kit, and other marketing materials. Undercurrent Blues Has A Rhythm of Its Own - Poetry Book Review On July 17, 2005 Cahuenga Press released Undercurrent Blues by James Cushing (Cahuenga is a cooperative press and Undercurrent Blues is the 14th book they have published since their inception in 1989). The collection includes poems written from 1989 through 1991 and 1997 through 2002. The Oz Principle - A Book Summary In The Oz Principle, Connors, Smith, and Hickman brilliantly use the analogy of "The Wizard of Oz" to discuss a business philosophy aimed in propelling individuals and organizations to overcome unfavorable circumstances and achieve desired results. This philosophy can be encompassed in one word: ACCOUNTABILITY. How Would You Move Mount Fuji? - AchieveMax® Top Ten Book Review For a number of reasons, today's hiring managers from Wall Street to the Silicon Valley are totally restructuring their approach to interviewing job prospects. Few will admit it has anything to do with the fact that our litigious society makes it very difficult to ask almost any personal question of today's job applicant. For Fans of Seinfeld-like Coincidences Isn't That Bigamy (c) 2005, ISBN 1411634241, Mike Vogel, Lulu PressYou have just broken up with your girlfriend who leaves you in a busy restaurant with no way home, a tough waitress dumps a drink in your lap for no reason, and now you have to walk home with a wet crotch. If that is not enough, while walking across a bridge, you witness a mob hit quite by accident. Albany, NY Family History Reference Now Available Thanks To Author Joseph Yakel "Personal research references, especially for families who once lived in the South End area of Albany, are very difficult to come by", said Yakel. "Lower Albany had a very strong mix of European immigrants, especially Germans, throughout the 19th century. Create Your Own Future - AchieveMax® Top Ten Book Review Create Your Own Future: How to Master 12 Critical Factors of Unlimited Success by Brian TracyCreate Your Own Future is another example of what Brian Tracy does best. Over the years he has studied success techniques, theories, and processes and then re-framed them with personal insights to pass on to more than 500 corporations and more than two million people in 23 countries via his books, audio tapes, seminars and keynotes. Dont Eat This Book by Morgan Spurlock: Lightweight But Convincing Expose of the Fast Food Industry For those of you who've been on another planet for the past year or so, Morgan Spurlock is a filmaker who spent an entire month eating nothing but McDonald's food and filming the decline in his health, expanding waistline and other alarming consequences of this damaging diet.The result was the gripping documentary, Super Size Me, which earned a well-deserved Oscar nomination. Silent Lies - Book Review "Silent Lies is an action romance saga, that takes the reader through decades of a tumultuous time between the end of World War I and the beginnings of World War II. Excellent and intelligent use of actual historical events makes this piece both educational and entertaining. Lethal Option - Book Review "This has to be one of the best detective novels I have read in some time - right up there with Lawrence Sanders! P.J. Review: Profit From The Author Inside You I've reviewed a number of eBooks recently, and none of themexcited me, but this one definitely did. If you've ever hadthe slightest desire to write a 'How To' book, I urge youto read 'Profit From The Author Inside You'. Free Ebook Offer: The Story of America: Discovery Did Columbus first discover America?Did the Vikings first discover America?Did the Chinese first discover America?No, in truth the American continent was first discovered between 10,000 and 15,000 years ago by bands of roving hunters from the Siberian steppes, who made the lonely trek across to the previously unknown continent during the last Great Ice Age when the sea level fell enough to expose a narrow causeway that acted as a bridge between the two continents.No signs have yet been found of any human habitation on the continent before these times so it must be assumed that they arrived to find an uninhabited land. The Leadership Pill - AchieveMax® Top Ten Book Review The Leadership Pill is another volume for those of you anxious to add to your library of "mini-books." Ken Blanchard, a veritable self-help book-writing machine, partners with co-author Marc Muchnick to create this 112-page parable that every leader will want to read and share with those he/she mentors. Fire in the Ice: Book Review "An excellent novel that will wring tears of frustration and pain and then tears of joy from the reader.'Fire in the Ice' is a perfect title for this book. Bury My Heart at Redtree Title: Bury My Heart at Redtree Author: Patrick Chalfant Genre: Suspense/Thriller ISBN: 1-930709-53-6Patrick Chalfant weaves a tale that is a mixture of psychological suspense, Native American mysticism and revenge in his sophomore novel Bury My Heart at Redtree. Redtree follows Taylor, a promising young psychology student as he builds his masters thesis around the revenge he has planned for those who are responsible for his parent's death.
|
| home | site map |
| © 2006 |
