This book is about the twin questions can a good company become great and if so, how? Perhaps most relevant to corporate executives, the lessons or “good‐to‐great disciplines” arguably apply to organisations, both large and small, public and private, as well as the individual. Collins retrospectively describes Good to Great as a prequel to Built to Last, an earlier book with co‐author Jerry Porras. Based on brand‐name companies such as Boeing, 3M, Citicorp, GE, Hewlett Packard, Johnson & Johnson, Merck, Proctor & Gamble, Sony and Walt Disney – Built to Last identifies factors that enable great companies to sustain their success during prolonged change. However, the book was unhelpful for those seeking to facilitate a transition of good to great. Good to Great fixes this problem (Collins, 2004).
The concepts in the book are developed from empirical deductions drawn directly from data. The research approach, described like installing light bulbs inside the black box, included a systematic process of contrasting good to great (GTG) companies with comparison companies always asking “What is the difference?”
The structure of the book unpacks the black box, following a progressive discussion of key concepts headed by a useful summary of the overall framework in the first chapter. Good to Great describes the transition as a process of build‐up followed by breakthrough in three broad stages: disciplined people then disciplined thought and finally disciplined action. Within each stages are two concepts, respectively: Level 5 leadership and first who, then what; next confront the brutal facts and the Hedgehog concept (that plays on an ancient Greek parable and signifies effort to simplify a complex world by a focus on the intersection of three needs – core competence, passion and financial returns); and finally a culture of discipline and technology accelerators. Completing this conceptual framework is a chapter shaped on the imagery of the flywheel that suggests persistent effort which slowly builds momentum turn by turn, until breakthrough. The imagery, albeit intended for an organisation is similar to Covey's seventh principle – Sharpen the Saw. The last chapter repositions GTG in terms of Built to Last, the latter being small early‐stage entrepreneurs trying to get off the ground, whereas GTG is about CEO's trying to transform established companies (p. 190).
In evaluating the value of this book, one cautionary observation – the logic and content bear a similarity to the best‐selling management text In Search of Excellence by Peters and Waterman (Harper and Row, 1982). Like Collins in GTG, Peter's and Waterman asked: What was the secret of successful management and why does the productivity of one corporation soar, while others struggle to keep from going under? Another point of similarity is Collins’ choice of sustained great results (three times the market over 15 years) as the selection criteria for GTG companies. In Peters and Waterman's book it is simply “the companies have performed well over long periods and that is good enough for us” (p. 25). Perhaps most interestingly is the attempt in both books to initially discount the role of leadership to avoid the common belief of the day that leadership was the answer to everything. Like Collins, Peter's and Waterman unfortunately found that almost every excellent company was associated with a strong leader (or two) who seemed to have a lot to do with making the company great, oops (wrong book) I meant excellent (Peters and Waterman, 1982). Another notable parallel in the ascribed importance of culture that In Search of Excellence links to the values and practices of the great leader, and GTG describes as a “culture of discipline” that combined with an ethic of entrepreneurship gives the magical alchemy of great performance (p. 13).
So to the question: is this work of any enduring value and will it be any more relevant because of the emerging new economy. The answers to these and other questions are presented in a set of FAQ's at the back. Another perspective can be gained by the book's continued comparison with In Search of Excellence. Good to Great is similarly easy to read, unashamedly anecdotal, presents few statistics and provides some concrete examples of companies that seem to be getting it right. Somewhat more contentious is the half serious proposition that the earlier principles of staying close to the customer, making it simple, promoting entrepreneurship and autonomy, hands‐on management and applying good old fashioned common‐sense have simply been replaced by another more sophisticated set of principles in GTG that reflect the style and language of modern corporate America. Nor should this be surprising as Collins in his reflection on the new economy and on change suggests that certain immutable laws of organized human performance will endure (p. 15). Thus, it could be said we have in Good to Great a contemporary interpretation of “timeless principles” much like In Search of Excellence provided some 20 years earlier and which at the level of the individual, Stephen Covey's 7 Habits (first published in 1989) presented – in terms of character and human effectiveness (Covey, 2004). The question is, which principles will prevail and how might they be operationalized? Only time and application will tell.
Notwithstanding, there are many useful insights that emerge from this book including a reminder that GTG companies did not focus principally on what to do. Rather they focused equally on what not to do and what to stop doing (pruning). The book also notes that technology and technology driven changes had virtually nothing to do with igniting a transformation, and perhaps even more notably it suggests that GTG companies paid scant attention to managing change, motivating people or creating alignment. Rather, GTG companies went about their business without a name, launch event or program to signify the transformation and most insiders were unaware of the magnitude of the transformation until they looked back and noticed it had occurred. Perhaps most notably, as Collins apparently reluctantly accepts, GTG companies have humble leaders – described as Level 5 – who never blew their own trumpet, were often shy and reserved, but fiercely determined to create an enduring company. Another important insight concerns getting the right people for the journey – the who came before the what or strategy, with the priority on finding committed and productive people and repositioning them on the best opportunities – not problems. Finally, highlighting the idea of a culture of discipline, not tyranny, GTG companies applied standards across all levels, without permitting nepotism and a hard‐edged stance is evident in the observation that to let the wrong people hang around was unfair to the right people.
On reflection, what stands out most are the evocative terms littered through the book – “dogs that did not bark”, doom loops, flywheels and BHAGs (that academic literature simply calls smart goals) to name just some. Summing up, much like the realization following In Search of Excellence, there is arguably little evidence of the principles Collins highlights in business schools and contemporary MBA curriculums (p. 36). Turning our attention to the productivity proposition, there is, however, nothing esoteric about the essential message – that it is human loyalty, commitment and identification with the company's success and most simply the human relationship, which underwrites excellence in performance. Thus, Good to Great, much like its precursor text In Search of Excellence, would support the notion that its (right) people – not money, machine or minds – that is the key to it all. Reassuringly, not much seems to have changed. However, we might wonder at how the principles get translated in practice at the coalface and more fundamentally what the notion right person means in a knowledge‐based environment and a network society (Castells, 2000) or for that matter any society? These cautions aside, the book is worth getting if you want a clear framework to transform a good or even mediocre company (or yourself) to great.
