GOOD TO GREAT
By Jim Collins

Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…and Others Don’t by Jim Collins was first published in 2001. I do not know why I waited so long to read it, but a couple weeks back I picked it up and could not put it down until I had read it completely. He and his team started with 1,435 good companies. Using some pretty tough benchmarks, Collins and his research team narrowed the search down to 28 companies to study. Out of that group, he selected 11 companies that had made the leap to great, and then used the remaining 17 as comparison companies.

The results for me were startling. Collins challenges some of my core beliefs with regard to how successful companies operate and some of the holy ground that organizational development folks have walked for years. I was so stirred up that I built a lecture around the book and devote time in my graduate business classes to the paradoxes. Some of the author’s findings I easily agreed with, and others still have my head spinning.

The following are two that I am still struggling with. Collins’ study concludes that strategy per se did not separate the good to great companies from the comparison companies. Both sets of companies had well-defined strategies. I have long believed that strategy-focused organizations with the right strategies and positioning efforts dominate the market. While the Balanced Scorecard is very difficult to execute, it does offer some valuable insights. Collins does not say that strategy is unimportant, just that it does not make a difference between good and great companies. The other finding that you might find interesting is that the good to great companies paid scant attention to managing change, motivating people, or creating alignment. He says that, under the right conditions, the problems of commitment, alignment, motivation, and change largely melt away. I am still wrestling with this one. I have always felt that these are fundamental to success in the workplace.

Good to Great is a thought-provoking book. I really liked the fable about the hedgehog and the fox. While the fox is crafty, cunning, and knows a lot, in the end the hedgehog always wins. The hedgehog is a simple and dowdy creature that knows one thing and sticks to it. The key is to understand what your organization is really best at in the marketplace. Tom Peters called it “Stick to the Knitting.” It is also important to know what not to do, and what to stop doing. I strongly recommend it. It is always healthy to have your fundamental assumptions questioned from time to time.

Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…and Others Don’t is available at bookstores everywhere and may be ordered from the SHRM bookstore ($21.95 SHRM members), Barnes and Noble (www.bn.com) for $19.25, and Amazon (www.amazon.com) for $16.50.

(Reviewed by Ed Parks, Ph.D., SPHR, Marymount University)

Note: We invite book reports from members on specialty or general interest publications related to the Human Resources field. Submissions are published in the monthly newsletter and posted on the Chapter website. Email your book review to Dulles SHRM Communications Director Nancy Streeter (nabss@aol.com).

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