Quick Summary:

Being good will stop you from being great. Why start off as an average person who’s just good enough when you can start off as a great person in the first place?

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Chapter 1: Good is the enemy of great.

Jim Collins bizarrely argues that one of the reasons stopping something from being great is that it's already good. This suggestion weighed heavy in his mind during a business meeting. When the managing director of the San Francisco Office Mckinskey Company said that some proposed companies were useless for the mere fact that they weren’t great, they were 'only good'. Jim Collins then presented the idea of his research, where companies were sub-grouped into 'great' and 'good' companies and their results were compared.

The conduction of such research went through different phases. The first phase was called 'the search ‘and as expected, it comprised two things.First, search for the team and search for the companies to study. The team was composed of 21 researchers, and the companies had one condition to fulfill to become a 'great company'. The cumulative returns should at least be three times the general stock market for fifteen years. The next phase was called 'inside the black box'.

This phase is predominantly an analysis of the twenty-eight collected companies. From reading articles, to subgrouping the attained material, to interviewing the executives. That was a lot of work that needed ten and a half years to be complete. These research results surprised the researchers a myriad of times. They found out there is no ‘strategy for greatness’. The greater companies did not have more complex strategies.

Nor technology, nor acquisitions had anything to do with being great. As supported by the research results. For a company to become great, it shouldn’t focus only on what to do, but also on what not to do. Being in a great industry does not mean the company is going to become great.Finally, paying attention to the influence of people and managing change is the key to success.The last phase is called ‘the chaos’.Jim Collins explains that in this phase, he built up an entire framework from a set of meaningless data.

The results of the research can be simply put into one word, discipline. The leaders of the chosen companies were surprisingly shy, self-affecting and quiet. They did not begin with a strategy and tried to fulfill it. On the other hand, they chose the right people, discarded the wrong ones, and then went on from there. The researchers came to a staggering conclusion.For a company to become great, it should believe that one day it will be great despite the obstacles, and at the same time, tackle its current problems with no denial.

Doing something for a long time does not signify that you’re the best at it.  Not being the best means you cannot be great.You must learn about culture and discipline to become great. Lastly, technology is not the cause of greatness, it’s a tool and not a cause of greatness itself.There is no one-time event to success. It’s a process that takes time and effort, for the whole picture to be completed.Will this idea be applied to new companies? Yes, this book is the root for how to change your company from good to great.

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Chapter 2: Level 5 leadership

Imagine two racers in a marathon, one was most likely to win, and the other was the dark horse of the race.He made all the efforts that could possibly be done, and he finally went glorious.One of the best examples of a CEO who changes his company from good to great is Darwin Smith. In the twentieth century, Kimberly-Clark was the leading paper-based consumer products company in the world.  Smith said, “I made the decision to sell the workshop as the business became too mainstream and therefore weak.”

The media called the act stupid.Surprisingly, the company owned Scott paper and beat Procter and Gamble in six categories.Not everything that happens in a company should be attributed to the leader. Instead, a deeper scientific understanding should be reached.To become a level 5 leader, you should combine humble and fearless in your character. Colman Mockler, the CEO of the famous Gillette, refused to surrender and fought till the last breath to not sell his shares in the company.He preferred long term success over a temporary prize and turned out right in the end.

David Maxwell who was the CEO of Fannie and Mae miraculously transformed the company from losing a million dollars every day to winning four million every day and beating the general stock market 3.8 to 1. Afraid of harming the company after retirement, Maxwell willingly left 5.5 million of his retirement money to the company’s foundation for low-income housing. This is what all the leader of good or great companies has in common. Putting the firm’s concern first regardless of the benefit or loss they will personally experience.

Another key to a company’s success is leaving behind a company that can be equally great without you being in charge. Moreover, a successful leader should always be modest, speaking more of the company and how the board members were successful.Those leaders were quiet, they didn’t show off, they didn’t’ boast about themselves, and their work, they work and victoriously step towards their target. Leaders who show off what they did do not continue to be successful.

Lee Lacocca, CEO of Chrysler saved the company and had a major role in one of the so-called most celebrated turn arounds in American business history. Showing off and celebrating his victory, Chrysler was sold to another German car maker. Becoming a level 5 leader does not imply being modest, but it also shows they are being ferocious in your decisions. Even if this means firing your own family member, like George Caine did for the sake of the company. Luck, plays an important job in making a company great, thought Alan Wurtzel, a Nucor executive, and Joseph F. Cullman.

In fact, there is no place for luck in the success of great companies. It is blaming the poor results on bad luck.Can someone learn to become a level 5 leader? Non-egoistic people can. Almost all the study’s CEOs had a plot twist somewhere in their lives that glimmered their maturation. There are no steps that can be taken to become a level 5 leader, only the application of the leaders’ traits would help.

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