Takeaways: Good to Great by Jim Collins

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

by Jim Collins

   If you are interested in business and entrepreneurship, this book might be the right choice to read. The book contains a lot of interesting concepts that are extracted through long-term research on good-to-great companies. The book focuses on identifying common elements of those companies in their good to the great transformation process and extracts some lessons from them.

   Here are some of my quick lessons from this book:
   1. Good is the enemy of Great. Most of the companies may feel comfortable once they became good. Their goodness may stop them to be great.
 - If you want to be great don't stop to enjoy your early accomplishments, go forward as much as you can.  

   2. Level five leaders played a vital role in the process of changing from good to great. They came from inside the company (9 out of 10 companies). Those leaders were humble, passionate to work and have a professional attitude. They got the responsibility to themselves rather than blaming others.
 - Be always humble, professional, and work hard.

   3. First comes who, then to do what. In a company, people are not the assets, only the right people are the assets. Make sure that you got the right people on the bus. The right people work proactively on the task at hand, we don't always need to manage and motivate them.
 - Surround yourself only with the right people.

   4. Good-to-great companies learn from the facts. They never feel afraid of confronting a brutal reality. They believe that they will prevail in the end, no matter how worse the situation is.
 - Be aware of the facts and reality always.

   5. Good-to-great companies well suited in the center of three circles that the author calls it the Hedgehog Concept (ancient Greek parable says, the hedgehog knows one thing how to protect, fox know many things but it defeated). To identify the Hedgehog concept, we need to find the answers to the below questions.

• Passion about what?
• What drives your economic engine?
• In what you can be the best?

The crossed area of the answers to those questions is the Hedgehog Concept, and it was a turning point of good to great transition. A core concept of business activity can be built on it.
 - What is your Hedgehog concept in business and life?

   6. Good to great companies applied a relevant technology as an accelerator, not a creator of their momentum. Utilizing the right technology is essential.
 - Learn to use technology effectively.

   7. The transformation of good to great has happened through the evolution process. It was the cumulative work of the people inside the company. They did not have some unique programs to start or event to launch.
 - Daily small improvements lead to great accomplishment.

You will find more good ideas to learn in this book.

Thank you for reading!