I have just finished listening to Good to Great by Jim Collins and I wanted to record my initial thoughts about this on my blog. As I listened to the novel on Audible I really enjoyed the different values and Ideas he implied were essential in building up a great business. Overall, Good to Great provided a very handy model and framework to develop a business. Such concepts as the flywheel go some way to challenge the ‘magic bullet fascination within the world of business. In addition to that, a level 5 leader instead of ‘Fred the Shred’ might have generated a different outcome for Royal Bank of Scotland in the last year.
With that being said, trying to unveil the complexity of the business world to create the framework that leads a business to become great is a hard thing to execute. The environment in which a business operates in is to complex for a ‘strategy to business success’ to exist. Any business book that states they have found the key to success is most likely full of themselves. Although I don’t feel that Jim Collins does claim this strategy to success in this book, I wouldn’t be surprised if it falls a little short of the ‘answer’.
After doing some research their has been some criticism towards this book regarding some of the companies that where chosen and their subsequent failures, Fannie Mae being one of them. However, the book never claimed that these companies that were chosen will continue to be great beyond the 15 years of great performance that was shown in the book. 4 out of the 11 great companies used in this study were confronting serious challenges to their greatness or had at least already lost it by the time the book went public. It is worth mentioning that Mr. Collins has published another book “How the mighty fall: And why some companies never give in”, which I imagine (because I haven’t read it) goes into more detail regarding certain questions people might have about the falling companies mentioned in this book.
Should you read this?
If you are looking for certain factors that can be proven to bring a business success then NO! However, if you are searching for different ideas that develop your mind and your business with concepts that have been considered by others then YES! This book may not give you the answers but it does provide your brain with some nutrition.
