That Technology Magazine

By Jim Collins

I listened to the audio version of this book which is spanned over 7 disks.
This book is result of research study done for 5 years by studying and comparing 28 companies and selecting 11 companies who produced exponential results above the market average for a period of 15 years and what makes them leap from “good” to “great”. In this book author points out various common factors which makes companies from good to great and why some companies can not leap from good to great. Some of the points which author found out by his research study are -

1. Level 5 Leadership , Disciplined actions, disciplined thoughts and disciplined people, catalyzing commitment through professional will,compelling modesty and personal humility, workmanlike diligence and not showmanlike, Long range strategic planning and good strategy vs. bad strategy.
2. Importance of having right people on the bus, getting off wrong people from the bus and the direction to drive the bus is emphasized a lot. People decisions and importance of “who” before “what”.
3. Importance of culture of the company, building a culture around freedom and responsibility, rigorous culture vs ruthless culture and management of best people in the company.
4. Adherence with great consistency to hedgehog business concept is described in detail and “hedgehog” is compared with “fox” business concept.
5.Core ideology of the company - values, practices and success. Technical contribution, respect for the individual and contribution to the community in which they operate.
6. Technology factor is described and author found out that though technology is important, in the companies which he studied, right adoption and application of technology is the accelerator and NOT the primary cause of companies jumping from good to great.
7. Disciplined diversification and every step of innovation should stay within 3 circles. No attempt to launch unrelated businesses or unrelated acquisitions, egoless clarity of what they are best at and what they are not, doing only things which they are passionate about and what drives the economic engine. Building RedFlag mechanisms and continuously staring at and
thinking about company’s situation.
8. Author has also discussed issues like inside CEO vs outside CEO, the amount and structure of executive compensation and importance of not just “how” you compensate executives but “whom” you compensate.
Author has given numerous examples from 11 companies he selected, ( I am not writing the names of the companies and numerous small small ideas that make them great here ) to emphasize how they manage to leap from good to great.