Book Review: Good To Great
I just finished Good To Great, by Jim Collins. I realize it's been out a while, but having heard quite a few people rave and rant about it, I picked it up a few weeks back at Barnes & Nobles here in town.Needless to say, I was impressed. Both by the volumes of research that Jim did and by the massive amounts of statistics that he used to back up his hypothesis and his findings. It's not necessarily a "light" read, and about 1/4 of the pages are appendixes and explanations of how he and his team of researchers arrived at the end-result of the 11 "Good To Great" companies.
I was quite impressed with the fact that his research turned up companies you wouldn't normally associate with being "great". Nucor, Gillette, and Fannie Mae aren't usually on my list of Top 10 greatest companies ever. Some companies are absent from the list (you won't find Intel, IBM, or even GE in the pages) ... but that's apparent once you look at the criteria a company has to match to fit the "Good To Great" mold. Fifteen years of "so-so" performance, and then fifteen years of "great" performance ... and more than one "leader" during these time periods. Sustained growth by one leader may just mean the company has a great leader (Berkshire Hathaway?) ... not necessarily a great company.
Needless to say, I'd recommend the book to anyone aspiring to own a company, or work for a company (yes, that's all of you).
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