Systems & Planning Books

Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't

Jim Collins

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The Challenge
Built to Last, the defining management study of the nineties, showed how great companies triumph over time and how long-term sustained performance can be engineered into the DNA of an enterprise from the verybeginning.

But what about the company that is not born with great DNA? How can good companies, mediocre companies, even bad companies achieve enduring greatness?

The Study
For years, this question preyed on the mind of Jim Collins. Are there companies that defy gravity and convert long-term mediocrity or worse into long-term superiority? And if so, what are the universal distinguishing characteristics that cause a company to go from good to great?

The Standards
Using tough benchmarks, Collins and his research team identified a set of elite companies that made the leap to great results and sustained those results for at least fifteen years. How great? After the leap, the good-to-great companies generated cumulative stock returns that beat the general stock market by an average of seven times in fifteen years, better than twice the results delivered by a composite index of the world's greatest companies, including Coca-Cola, Intel, General Electric, and Merck.

The Comparisons
The research team contrasted the good-to-great companies with a carefully selected set of comparison companies that failed to make the leap from good to great. What was different? Why did one set of companies become truly great performers while the other set remained only good?

Over five years, the team analyzed the histories of all twenty-eight companies in the study. After sifting through mountains of data and thousands of pages of interviews, Collins and his crew discovered the key determinants of greatness -- why some companies make the leap and others don't.

The Findings
The findings of the Good to Great study will surprise many readers and shed light on virtually every area of management strategy and practice. The findings include:

• Level 5 Leaders: The research team was shocked to discover the type of leadership required to achieve greatness.
• The Hedgehog Concept (Simplicity within the Three Circles): To go from good to great requires transcending the curse of competence.
• A Culture of Discipline: When you combine a culture of discipline with an ethic of entrepreneurship, you get the magical alchemy of great results. Technology Accelerators: Good-to-great companies think differently about the role of technology.
• The Flywheel and the Doom Loop: Those who launch radical change programs and wrenching restructurings will almost certainly fail to make the leap.

“Some of the key concepts discerned in the study,” comments Jim Collins, "fly in the face of our modern business culture and will, quite frankly, upset some people.”

Perhaps, but who can afford to ignore these findings?

A Sense of Urgency

John P. Kotter

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True urgency is a gut-level determination to move and win, now.
It’s practitioners are unusually alert. They come to work each day determined to achieve something important, and they shed irrelevant activities to move faster and smarter. Those with a sense of urgency are the opposite of complacent—but they are not stressed-out and anxious, generating great activity without much productivity. Instead, they move boldly toward the future—sharply on the lookout for the hazards and the opportunities that change brings.

Bestselling author and business guru John Kotter knows about urgency. “Raising urgency” is the first step in his enormously successful eight-step framework, first articulated in Leading Change. But as Kotter illustrates, increasing urgency is the toughest of the eight steps, and the one without which even the most brilliant, high-powered initiatives will sputter and die. More importantly, as we transition to a world where change is continuous—not just episodic—he shows how urgency must become a core, sustained capability.
With vivid and powerful stories, Kotter reveals a distinctive view of the kind of urgency needed in every organization. He also highlights the insidious nature of its nemesis, complacency, in all its guises. He explains the crucial difference between constructive true urgency, and the frantic wheelspinning that is so often mistaken for urgency. He provides key tactics for increasing urgency, as well as exposing and rooting out complacency, with chapters on:
•Bringing the outside in
•Behaving with urgency every day
•Finding opportunity in crises
•Dealing with “NoNos” or naysayers

A Sense of Urgency is a powerful tool for anyone wanting to win in a turbulent world that will only continue to move faster.

Six Disciplines® Execution Revolution: Solving the One Business Problem That Makes Solving All Other Problems Easier

Gary Harpst

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With all of the pressures successful business leaders have today, none is more urgent or challenging than learning the ability to execute strategy.

While larger businesses have the luxury of budgets and resources to meet this challenge, it's the small and midsized businesses that now have a tremendous opportunity to level the playing field, leapfrog the expensive, outdated approaches of the past, and attack the challenge of execution in a revolutionary way. The key insights are:

• Excellence is the enduring pursuit of balanced strategy and execution
• Planning and executing, while at the same time dealing with the inevitable surprises, is the biggest challenge in business
• Overcoming this challenge is what we mean by solving the one problem that makes all others easier
• Failing to solve the problem destines your organization to a reactive, fire-fighting future.

Based on breakthrough research, field testing and proven best-practices, the thought-leading vision described by Gary Harpst in Six Disciplines® Execution Revolution sets a new course for how small and midsized businesses can finally confront the never-ending challenge of executing strategy.

As a follow-up to the success of Six Disciplines for Excellence, Harpst's new book, Six Disciplines® Execution Revolution, details the elements of a complete strategy execution program, clarifies how it could only have happened now, and explains why such a program will soon become a mainstream requirement for your business.

Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die

Chip Heath, Dan Heath

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Total reviews: 219 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

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Mark Twain once observed, “A lie can get halfway around the world before the truth can even get its boots on.” His observation rings true: Urban legends, conspiracy theories, and bogus public-health scares circulate effortlessly. Meanwhile, people with important ideas–business people, teachers, politicians, journalists, and others–struggle to make their ideas “stick.”

Why do some ideas thrive while others die? And how do we improve the chances of worthy ideas? In Made to Stick, accomplished educators and idea collectors Chip and Dan Heath tackle head-on these vexing questions. Inside, the brothers Heath reveal the anatomy of ideas that stick and explain ways to make ideas stickier, such as applying the “human scale principle,” using the “Velcro Theory of Memory,” and creating “curiosity gaps.”

In this indispensable guide, we discover that sticky messages of all kinds–from the infamous “kidney theft ring” hoax to a coach’s lessons on sportsmanship to a vision for a new product at Sony–draw their power from the same six traits.

Made to Stick is a book that will transform the way you communicate ideas. It’s a fast-paced tour of success stories (and failures)–the Nobel Prize-winning scientist who drank a glass of bacteria to prove a point about stomach ulcers; the charities who make use of “the Mother Teresa Effect”; the elementary-school teacher whose simulation actually prevented racial prejudice. Provocative, eye-opening, and often surprisingly funny, Made to Stick shows us the vital principles of winning ideas–and tells us how we can apply these rules to making our own messages stick.

Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make Competition Irrelevant

W. Chan Kim, Renée Mauborgne

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Winning by Not Competing: A Fresh Approach to Strategy

Since the dawn of the industrial age, companies have engaged in head-to-head competition in search of sustained, profitable growth. They have fought for competitive advantage, battled over market share, and struggled for differentiation. Yet these hallmarks of competitive strategy are not the way to create profitable growth in the future.

In a book that challenges everything you thought you knew about the requirements for strategic success, W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne argue that cutthroat competition results in nothing but a bloody red ocean of rivals fighting over a shrinking profit pool. Based on a study of 150 strategic moves spanning more than a hundred years and thirty industries, the authors argue that lasting success comes not from battling competitors, but from creating "blue oceans": untapped new market spaces ripe for growth. Such strategic moves-which the authors call "value innovation"- create powerful leaps in value that often render rivals obsolete for more than a decade.

Blue Ocean Strategy presents a systematic approach to making the competition irrelevant and outlines principles and tools any company can use to create and capture blue oceans. A landmark work that upends traditional thinking about strategy, this book charts a bold new path to winning the future.

W. Chan Kim is the Boston Consulting Group Bruce D. Henderson Chair Professor of Strategy and International Management at INSEAD. Renée Mauborgne is the INSEAD Distinguished Fellow and Professor of Strategy and Management.

Good to Great and the Social Sectors: A Monograph to Accompany Good to Great

Jim Collins

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Total reviews: 63 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Excellent companion addressing not-for-profits' unique needs 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

Jim Collins is the author of "Good to Great," an influential business and leadership book. In the time since the publication of the book, Collins realized that there exist points of disconnect within the book for leaders of not-for-profit agencies (e.g. churches, local charitable organizations, groups that exist for specific causes like disease eradication or the advancement of art). In an effort to apply the concepts of "Good to Great" to the unique needs of social service organizations, this monograph was produced.

This monograph can best be thought of as an appendix or additional chapter for "Good to Great." Indeed, the reader will be lost unless first reading the work upon which this monograph is based. In it, five points/modifications/explanations are provided that address what Collins perceives to be the five biggest "trouble areas" when applying "Good to Great" to not-for-profit agencies.

First, not-for-profits struggle with the definition of "great." In the definition supplied by Collins in "Good to Great," "great" is partly defined in terms of profit margin. Since not-for-profit agencies, by definition, do not seek profits, a modification must be made. Collins suggests using anecdotal evidence and rubrics instead of budgetary numbers to determine if the organization's goals are being met.

Second, power and authority in social sector organizations are not centralized, but contain nearly limitless checks ("a thousand points of no"). Collins advocates a leadership style that emphasizes the good of the organizations. If the organizational leader can effectively communicate (legitimately, not falsely) that his main concern is the health of the organization and realization of the cause, he buys himself a lot of leeway in decision making.

Third, volunteer-based organizations feel great pressure to simply put warm bodies in positions of authority instead of selectively choosing only the best candidates. Collins argues that the pressures of a volunteer-based culture should only make the leader more determined to practice selectivity. Setting high standards, focusing on creating "pockets of excellence" within organizations, and emphasizing the moral importance of the organization can help to attract high-quality employees and volunteers.

Fourth, the concept of profit margin creeps in again. It is important to recognize that organizations--business as well as social-sector--need money to operate. Even though not-for-profit agencies are not about the money, their "hedgehog concept" should certainly include consideration of their economic engine. That is, their social cause should take into consideration the question, "will people actually buy into our cause and support it with donations of volunteer hours, monetary donations, and in-kind support?"

Finally, the organization must not neglect promoting itself as a "brand." Although the natural inclination of social sector institutions is to keep the focus on the cause, they must also make sure people understand that the organization is meeting the cause effectively...indeed, they are "the best" at what they do. A reputation for excellence tends to attract loyalty and donations. Consider Harvard University, which attracts millions of dollars it doesn't necessarily need because people believe that a Harvard education is "the best" in the world.

In all, as a pastor in a not-for-profit church, this book addressed all the concerns I had in applying Collins' "Good to Great" concepts in my situation. Truth be told, it even addressed problems I had not yet identified. I highly recommend this brief monograph to compliment "Good to Great."

Editorial Review:

Jim Collins Answers the Social Sector with a Monograph to Accompany Good to Great. 30-50% of those who bought Good to Great work in the Social Sector.

• This monograph is a response to questions raised by readers in the social sector. It is not a new book.
• Jim Collins wants to avoid any confusion about the monograph being a book by limiting its distribution to online retailers.
• Based on interviews and workshops with over 100 social sector leaders.
• The difference between successful organizations is not between the business and the social sector, the difference is between good organizations and great ones.

Billion-Dollar Lessons: What You Can Learn from the Most Inexcusable Business Failures of the Last 25 Years

Paul B. Carroll, Chunka Mui

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Welcome to Business Failure 101

In the 1960s, IBM CEO Tom Watson called an executive into his office after his venture lost $10 million. Watson asked the man if he knew why he’d been called in. The man said he assumed he was being fired. Watson told him, “Fired? Hell, I spent $10 million educating you. I just want to be sure you learned the right lessons.”
In Billion-Dollar Lessons, Paul Carroll and Chunka Mui draw on research into more than 750 business failures to reveal the misguided tactics that mire companies again and again. There are thousands of books about successful companies but virtually none about the lessons to be learned from those that crash and burn.

Lesson One: The Cold Hard Facts

Between 1981 and 2006, 423 major publicly held U.S. companies with combined assets totaling $1.5 trillion filed for bankruptcy. Hundreds more took huge write-offs, discontinued major operations, or were acquired under duress. Again and again, companies follow the same wrong-headed strategies that brought down businesses in the past. The sub-prime mortgage crisis that cost companies tens of billions of dollars in 2007 and 2008 echoes the ill-conceived strategies that pushed Green Tree Financial and Conseco into bankruptcy years earlier. Tom Watson’s executive’s $10 million lesson seems cheap by comparison.

Lesson Two: Failure Patterns

Carroll and Mui found that the number one cause of failure was misguided strategy—not sloppy execution, poor leadership, or bad luck. These strategic errors fall into seven categories, including:
* Pursuing nonexistent synergies: Quaker Oats’ purchase of Snapple was supposed to capitalize on distribution synergies but instead led to a $1.7 billion write-off.
* Moving into an “adjacent” market that isn’t really adjacent: Avon decided its “culture of caring” qualified it to operate retirement homes. Subsequent write-offs totaled $545 million.
* Buying more problems than efficiencies through misguided consolidation: Despite pioneering the discount department store years before Sam Walton came along, Ames Department Stores flubbed consolidation efforts, landing in bankruptcy twice before eventually liquidating.

Lesson Three: Avoid Making the Same Mistakes

But there’s light at the end of the tunnel: Billion-Dollar Lessons provides proven methods that managers, boards, and even investors can adopt to avoid making the same mistakes. While there’s no way to guarantee success, this book draws on vivid, off-the-beaten-track examples to help you avoid failure by showing you how to thoroughly assess potentially disastrous strategies before they bring your company down.

Required Reading Think of Billion-Dollar Lessons as the flip side of Good to Great, but just as eye- opening and essential as that business classic. There’s enormous value in learning from companies that lost millions (if not billions) in pursuit of strategies that led to spectacular flameouts. Everyone makes mistakes, but why make the same mistakes over and over?

Winning [Ganar - Spanish language]

Jack Welch, Suzy Welch

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Total reviews: 199 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Clarifying Business 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This book can be largely digested by most people out there. You don't need an MBA to pick up on the points that Jack makes. His abrupt, simple-but-thoughtful and clear advice is refreshing and relevant. Very thought provoking and motivating.

High on the "Stories from Utopia" bookshelf 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This is a pleasant to read book that unfortunately has (almost) nothing to do with corporate reality. A better title for it would have been "Winning in Utopia". Admittedly, I don't have 40 years experience but I changed tack a couple of times yet never found a corporation where Jack's word come even close to describing how it works. Reasoning in "game theory" terms makes me think the vast majority of companies are very, very unlike what Jack describes. Jack himself inadvertently gives this away when recounting the story of the Q&A session with about 5000 HR professionals. In Utopia, the Chief HR sits right next the CEO, but when asked about their companies, only a few out of 5000 Real World Chief HR officers rise their hands acknowledging to having such a privileged position. I am most willing to admit that GE is an exception (that's probably part of why it's one of the most valuable companies in the world).

In the Real World, "candor" gets you stabbed and killed. Because most aspiring leaders know that, nobody takes the risk. Perfoming solidly might earn you "chits" but you can easily squander a year of solid performance by candidly speaking out one truth that proves inconvenient to your boss. On the other hand, sucking up to your boss consistently earns you large amounts of chits with less risk. Bosses are human too, they can't help but be pleased when flattered. In big organizations from the real world, middle managers feel like small cogs, the interests of their immediate boss are much closer to them than those of the distant and fuzzy concept of "Acme, Corp.", the company they are working for and which pays their salaries. Moreover, bosses have bosses too, so promoting "energetic, energizing, edge, execute, passionate" people would involve needless risks. Much better to promote their chums, guys that "get it", made in their image, loyal as they themselves are loyal to their own bosses. When you think of it, this is a proven system, it was called "feudalism" and thrived for several centuries. In our modern world it's the system that makes the various mobs (Cosa Nostra, Camorra, N'drangheta, etc.) compete so successfully. Admittedly, it doesn't work so well when there's fierce competition, but then you can still call on the politicians to protect your industry, which is what happens most of the time ...

So, read this book but for your own sake, make sure you are working for an Utopian company before trying to apply any of Jack's recommendations, or else you're a dead man and you won't be able to sue Jack for it ...

Editorial Review:

** Spanish-language edition **

 

Covering the most recent changes and newest economic realities, this book identifies certain core fundamentals of good business management. Information regarding organizational, competitive, and personal issues is included, as are chapters containing theoretical information and case studies.

 

Explorando los cambios más recientes y las nuevas realidades económicas, este libro identifica los fundamentos centrales e inmutables de los negocios bien manejados. Los capítulos incluyen información sobre temas de organización, temas competitivos y personales, y así como aspectos teóricos y ejemplos verdaderos.

Green to Gold: How Smart Companies Use Environmental Strategy to Innovate, Create Value, and Build Competitive Advantage

Daniel C. Esty, Andrew S. Winston

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The essential guide for forward-thinking business leaders who see the Green Wave coming and want to profit from it
This book explores what every executive must know to manage the environmental challenges facing society and business. Based on the authors' years of experience and hundreds of interviews with corporate leaders around the world, Green to Gold shows how companies generate lasting value, cutting costs, reducing risk, increasing revenues, and creating strong brands, by building environmental thinking into their business strategies. Daniel C. Esty and Andrew S. Winston provide clear how-to advice and concrete examples from companies like BP, Toyota, IKEA, GE, and Nike that are achieving both environmental and business success. The authors show how these cutting-edge companies are establishing an “eco-advantage” in the marketplace as traditional elements of competitive differentiation fade in importance. Esty and Winston not only highlight successful strategies but also make plain what does not work by describing why environmental initiatives sometimes fail despite the best intentions.
Green to Gold is written for executives at every level and for businesses of all kinds and sizes. Esty and Winston guide leaders through a complex new world of resource shortfalls, regulatory restrictions, and growing pressure from customers and other stakeholders to strive for sustainability. With a sharp focus on execution, Esty and Winston offer a thoughtful, pragmatic, and inspiring road map that companies can use to cope with environmental pressures and responsibilities while sparking innovation that will drive long-term growth. Green to Gold is the new template for global CEOs who want to be good stewards of the Earth while simultaneously building the bottom line. 

Crafting and Executing Strategy (with OLC access card)

Arthur A. Jr. Thompson, A. J. Strickland III, John E Gamble

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Editorial Review:

Thompson, Strickland and Gambles', CRAFTING AND EXECUTING STRATEGY, 15e presents the latest research findings from the literature and cutting-edge strategic practices of companies have been incorporated to keep step with both theory and practice. Scores of new examples have been added to complement the new and updated Illustration Capsules. More chapter-end exercises have been included. The result is a text treatment with more punch, greater clarity, and improved classroom effectiveness. But none of the changes have altered the fundamental character that has driven the text’s success over the years. The chapter content continues to be solidly mainstream and balanced, mirroring both the best academic thinking and the pragmatism of real-world strategic management. Known for its cases and teaching notes, CRAFTING AND EXECUTING STRATEGY includes a case line--up that will spark student interest and generate lively classroom discussions. A truly appealing lineup of 33 diverse, timely, and thoughtfully-crafted cases complements the text presentation. Many cases involve high-profile companies, and all are framed around issues and circumstances tightly linked to the content of the 13 chapters, thus pushing students to apply the concepts and analytical tools they have read about. And there's a comprehensive package of support materials that are a breeze to use, highly effective, and flexible enough to fit most any course design.