"Good to Great"

Good to Great is almost a business standard. Written in 2001 by Jim Colins, the book tries to explore the reasons why some firms make the jump to greatness while others do not. I thought it was a good read, and some of the concepts (i.e. the hedgehog principle) still apply today. In fact, I think Apple (when Steve Jobs returned) would be a good example of the hedgehog principle; although after reading his biography, I have my doubts about him as a leadership example (perhaps a future blog update).

However, looking back, what really caught my attention was that some of the companies identified in Good to Great are no longer with us (or not doing that well). The first two examples that come to mind are Circuit City,  and Fannie May. This caused me to do some research, and I found an article that briefly explores the "Good to Great" Conundrum as the author puts it. That article can be found here.

From my own limited background, I would say that the leaders of the companies failed to identify that the market was changing on them. They shifted from  their concept, thinking that status quo would remain.

Benjamin Franklin said, "The only things certain in life are death and taxes."I think he missed at least one thing on this list: Change. If you aren't paying attention, your competition will pass you by. You need to look for the opportunities, and assume that things will not always be the same. To do otherwise is to set you up for loss.

Okay, so do I recommend the book Good to Great? Yes, but the final lesson here is that if you don't change with the times, then the times will leave you by.

Good to Great can be found here: