In 1996 Jim Collins, the author of the US business bestseller Built to Last, was challenged to think more deeply about what makes a great company. 'The companies you wrote about were, for the most part, always great,' came a chance comment, at a conference. 'But what about the vast majority of companies that wake up partway through life and realise they're good, but not great?' This seed of an idea was to grow to occupy Collins, formerly an academic, for the next five years. From his 'management laboratory' in Boulder, Colorado, he set to work to find out whether a merely good company could become great - or whether the disease of 'just being good' was incurable. His first step was to assemble a group of 21 researchers, who then spent six months in intense financial analysis, sifting out from the Fortune 500 list a set of 11 'good-to-great' companies. In the years 1965 to 1995, these all showed 15-year cumulative stock returns at or below the general stock market; then, after a transition point, cumulative returns at least three times the market over the next 15 years. Collins also selected two sets of comparison companies: direct (those in the same industries which did not achieve great results) and unsustained (those which shifted from good to great, and back to good). That was just the start of a myth-exploding research project, now presented in this clearly written and easily read book. It shows that companies that made the 'great' grade rarely had celebrity leaders - in fact, writes Collins, 'going for a high-profile outside change agent is negatively correlated with a sustained transformation', precisely because celebrities are more often concerned with their own egos than the enduring calibre of the company they run. Instead, individuals who run 'great' companies tend to be self-effacing and limelight-shy. Other factors for greatness are shown to be the ability to recruit the right people at an early stage, maintain faith in an end goal while confronting hard facts, develop a culture of discipline, apply carefully selected technologies, build momentum and establish a purpose which goes beyond simply making money. This is a fascinating study, drawing on research insights which apply to other areas of life as well as business. (Kirkus UK)
