Good to Great

Good to Great

Jim CollinsRandom HouseISBN: 0 712676090£20Keywords:Leadership, Company performance

Is it possible for a good company to become a great one? Well, of course it must be. But how? Jim Collins attempts to tell us.

This is a kind of airport book … this is not to criticize it, merely to let you know the kind of style it adopts. It is based around an analysis of 11 companies from a variety of industries. One useful service Collins performs is to challenge the "self-hype" of good performing companies to challenge the real reasons for their success. One is, not surprisingly, the nature of leadership – and especially of the "top man". Perhaps, somewhat more surprisingly, of the companies selected here, most leaders were consensus builders, rather than charismatic and visionary. Collins' core message is that success is built around three interlocking circles representing: a focus on something the company can do better than anyone else, something which acts as its own revenue engine, and something about which the organization can feel passionate. Unfortunately, Collins' single measure of success is share price– this is a remarkably transient success measure and it will be interesting to go back to Collins' winning companies in a few years time and "re-measure"their success.