************** SUMMARY************

********** GOOD TO GREAT********

‘GOOD IS THE ENEMY OF GREAT’.This is how the author sets off a riveting journey explaining the findings
from his and his team’s half a decade of research in the conquest of how to make good companies
great .Essentially, ‘Good to Great’ happens very rarely and it is because it is damn difficult.In his
research, Jim Collins (The Author ),has found out systematic phases through which any great company
goes through and lays out a framework .The framework has got three main components:

1. PHASES :
There are three different phase in the ‘Good to Great’ journey .

 DISCIPLINED PEOPLE:
Involves getting the right leader and the right team.

 DISCIPLINED THOUGHT:
Involves understanding of brutal facts and creating a set of core values.

 DISCIPLINED ACTION:
Creating a robust culture where the right people will work within the defined core values with the
appropriate freedom.

2. PROCESS:

From setting up yourselves towards greatness to achieving an inflection point that takes you to
greatness.
3. FLYWHEEL:
A quite and deliberate process of figuring out what needs to be done for best future results and taking
those step one by one ,pushing the flywheel in a consistent direction until it achieves a breakthrough
point.

Lets delve into each of these components into a little detail.

Lets 5 leadership(process stage :Building up ;Phase:disciplined people)

LEVEL 1 HIGHLY CAPABLE INDIVIDUAL

Makes productive contributions through talent , knowledge ,skills and good work habits.
LEVEL 2 CONTRIBUTING TEAM MEMBER
Contributes to the achievement of group objectives;works effectively with others in a group
setting.

LEVEL 3 COMPETENT MANAGER

Organizes people and resources toward the effective and efficient persuit of predetermined
objectives .

LEVEL 4 EFFECTIVE LEADER

Catalyzes commitment to and vigorous pursuit of a clear and compelling vision ;stimulates the
group to high performance standards.

LEVEL 5 EXECUTIVE
Builds enduring greatness through a paradoxical combination of personal humility plus
professional will .

Research has shown that leaders who have brought the ‘Good to Great’ transformation are not
the one’s who are charismatic or big personalities but are rather quit,shy,deliberate .They are
the ones who have the combination of humility and professional will. Organizations that strive
to become great need to have a level 5 leader. Author explains leadership in terms of 5
different levels with level 5 being the highest level in the hierarchy .Following are the traits of a
level 5 leader :

 They first and foremost think about the success of their organization and then personal
riches .
 These are the lesders who are shy but show extreme fierceness in getting the job done.
 These people think about the future of their companies without them and plan about
their succession .
 They are modest and rarely like to talk about themselves or their achievements .They
prefere to share the credit with others as opposed to other ‘good’ company leaders who
are self obsessed and egalitarians .
 Level 5 leaders always apportioned the credit of success to others and If there were no
one to credit they credited towards ‘LUCK’.
 In times of failures they took the responsibility .This was exactly the opposite in case of
leaders of ‘good’ or failed organizations .
The right team is needed to achieve the success but what is even more important is to build
the right team even before you know what and which path to take towards greatness and
hence it is ‘first who..then what’.It is important to assemble a team of great people first and
then decide on the strategy or vision for the company to make it great .The main reason is that
when people join you for the strategy or the direction of the company then there is no
guarantee that they will stick around or be equally motivated when the company changes its
path . But those who are on the team because of someone else on the team will always be
there to make the company great regardless of its direction .The author uses a phrase ‘getting
right people on the bus and getting wrong people off the bus’ and it is the ‘wrong people off the bus’
that is equally important .The only way to deliver to the people who are achieving is not to burden them
with people who are not achieving.

Many companies adopt a ‘genius with thousand helpers’ model:where there is a genius and visionary
leader who sets the strategy for the company and hires people to help achieve that vision or strategy.
Author suggests this model most likely fails when that visionary departs and hence is not a sustainable
one for making a company great.

It is also important to be rigorous in the people decisions .There are three practical ways :

 When in doubt ,do not hire

 When you know you need to make a people change,act!
 Put your best people on biggest opportunities ,not on biggest problems .

One of the important recipes towards becoming a great company is to make a series of good decisions
cannot be made unless you confront with brutal facts first .Companies need to creat a climate where the
truth is heared .Creating a climate where truth is heared .

 Lead with questions ,not answers. Constantly probe until you have a clear picture .
 Engage in dialog and debate ,not coercion .It is important to get involved in intense discussions
because they have the capability to evolve into a successful conclusion rather than just being
amicable to maintain relationships .
 Conduct autopsies, without blame .The climate of truth prospers when you analyse the debacles
without blaming anyone for it .Consider these debacles as learnings and move on to build robust
systems to avoid similar debaclesin the future .

‘The hedgehog concept’essentially is the strategic diference between good and great companies .Great
companies have a deep understanding across three major dimensions and they use this understanding
to creat a clear and concise concept called ‘the hedgehog concept’which they imparted in every aspect
of their decision making .

The three key dimensions which enable great companies to have deep understanding about themselves
are:
  What can you be the best in the world at ?
 What drives your economic engine ?
 What you are deeply passionate about?

It is important that the organizations not only know what they can be best in the world at but also know
what they can not be best in the world at.You need to be the best in your core business .The idea is to
find the competency at which you can truly be best in the world and then discard any other
competencies.Hence only those things in which you can truly be best at makes it into the hedgehog
concept .

To understanding the driver of your economic engine, it is important to know the ‘economic
denominator’.It is the single most important ratio that has the single biggest impact to the company.Ask
the question ,if you were to pick only one ratio that would have the greatness impact ,then what would
that be ?This leads to great insight about the economics of the organization and hence better decisions.

The last part of the three key dimension is having a deep understanding of what you are passionate
about .Only when the companies indulge on things that they are really passionate about,they can
produce results that exceed expectations .It is not always necessarily a passion about what you do as
business but it can equally be about what you stand for as a business

Now that you have a leval 5 leader,the right people on the bus ,confronted brutal facts about you and
business and gained deep understanding of your hedgehog concept,it is now time to creat a culture that
is selfed disciplined to take actions within the desired framework of your hedgehog .A culture of
discipline requires people to strongly adhere to the defined hedgehog concepts but at the same time
provides much needed freedom to take disciplined actions within that framework .

Other thing that involved within culture of discipline is saying NO to all the opportunities that do not fit
the hedgehog concept.There needs to be a fanatical adherence to hedgehog concept that requires
companies to only focus on things that they have determined they can be best at.

Technology is certainly important in the growth of future businesses but what is more important is not
to blindly follow the new technoilogies but rather being diligent of knowing what technology can
accelerate the existing momentum . The great companies do not start with what technology to use but
start what technology fits best to our defined hedgehog concept .They are not attracted to the fads of
new technologies but rather give deep thought on the application of the right technology that will
propel them to another level .

The transformation rom good to great does not happen with a pioneering technology but by realizing
the right technology and becoming a pioneer in the application of that technology . Good to Great
companies are motivated by inner compulsion of excellent for its own sake. They are not motivated by
the fear of being left behind due to the technological changes because they know that after mindful
thought and adherence to their core concepts will lead them to eventual success in technological
transformation .
THE RESEARCH SHOWED THAT ALL THE GOOD TO GREAT TRANSFORMATION HAPPENED WITH THE
CONSISTANT APPLICATION OF ALL THE MENTIONED PHASES. IT SHOWED THAT GREAT COMPANIES DID
NOT EMERGE DUE TO A DRAMATIC OR A REVOLUTIONARY EVENT BUT RATHER YEARS OR DECADES OF
ADHERING TO THEIR CORE TENETS ,BUILDING UP IN THE PROCESS ,GAINING MOMENTUM SLOWLY AS
TURN BY TURN OF THE FLYWHEEL AND ULTIMATELY REACHING AN INFLECTION POINT OF
BREAKTHROUGH .