The author of the worldwide bestseller Good to Great returns with an all-new classic that outlines the principles for building a great enterprise in turbulent times
Ten years after the worldwide bestseller Good to Great, Jim Collins returns with another groundbreaking work, this time to ask: Why do some companies thrive in uncertainty, even chaos, and others do not? Based on nine years of research, buttressed by rigorous analysis and infused with engaging stories, Collins and his colleague Morten T. Hansen enumerate the principles for building a truly great enterprise in unpredictable, tumultuous and fast-moving times.
Great by Choice distinguishes itself from Collins’s prior work by its focus not just on performance, but on the type of unstable environments faced by leaders today.
THE NEW FINDINGS
The rigorous research project yielded some provocative surprises, such as:
• The best leaders were not more risk taking, more visionary, and more creative than the comparisons; they were more disciplined, more empirical, and more paranoid.
• Innovation by itself turns out not to be the trump card in a chaotic and uncertain world; more important is the ability to scale innovation, to blend creativity with discipline.
• Following the belief that leading in a “fast world” always requires “fast decisions” and “fast action” is a good way to get killed.
• The great companies changed less in reaction to a radically changing world than the comparison companies.
The authors replace conventional wisdom with thought-provoking, sticky, and supremely practical concepts. They include: 10Xers, the 20 Mile March, Fire Bullets then Cannonballs, Leading above the Death Line, Zoom Out then Zoom In, and SMaC recipe.
Finally, in the last chapter, Collins and Hansen present their most provocative and original analysis: defining, quantifying and studying the role of luck. The great companies and the leaders who built them were not luckier than the comparisons, but they did get a higher Return on Luck.
This book is classic Collins: contrarian, data-driven, and uplifting.
About the Authors
Jim Collins is a student and teacher of what makes great companies tick, and a Socratic advisor to leaders in the business and social sectors. Having invested more than a quarter-century in rigorous research, he has authored or coauthored six books that have sold in total more than 10 million copies worldwide. They include Good to Great, Built to Last, How the Mighty Fall, and Great by Choice. Driven by a relentless curiosity, Jim began his research and teaching career on the faculty at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he received the Distinguished Teaching Award in 1992. In 1995, he founded a management laboratory in Boulder, Colorado. In addition to his work in the business sector, Jim has a passion for learning and teaching in the social sectors, including education, healthcare, government, faith-based organizations, social ventures, and cause-driven nonprofits. In 2012 and 2013, he had the honor to serve a two-year appointment as the Class of 1951 Chair for the Study of Leadership at the United States Military Academy at West Point. In 2017, Forbes selected Jim as one of the 100 Greatest Living Business Minds. Jim has been an avid rock climber for more than forty years and has completed single-day ascents of El Capitan and Half Dome in Yosemite Valley. Learn more about Jim and his concepts at his website, where you’ll find articles, videos, and useful tools. jimcollins.com
Morten T. Hansen is a management professor at the University of California, Berkeley (School of Information), and at INSEAD. Formerly a professor at Harvard Business School, Morten holds a PhD from Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he was a Fulbright scholar. He is the author of Collaboration and the winner of the Administrative Science Quarterly Award for exceptional contributions to the field of organization studies. Previously a manager with the Boston Consulting Group, Morten consults and gives talks for companies worldwide.
Reviews
Praise for Good to Great: “This carefully researched and well-written book disproves most of the current management hype—from the cult of the superhuman CEO to the cult of IT to the acquisitions and merger mania. It will not enable mediocrity to become competence. But it should enable competence to become excellence. -Peter Drucker
“A book CEOs can’t wait to buy.” -USA Today
“Collins and his research team have been tackling one of the biggest questions business has to offer.” -Fortune
“With both Good to Great and Built to Last, Mr. Collins delivers two seductive messages: that great management is attainable by mere mortals and that its practitioners can build great institutions. It’s just what mortals want to hear.” -Wall Street Journal
“The difference is how hard Mr. Collins works to arrive at his simple conclusions. They are based on years of detailed, empirical research and are all the more powerful for producing such unexpected results.” -Financial Times
“The Business Idea of the year.” -Fast Company
“Collins again as written a book that seems built to last.” -BusinessWeek
“A sensible, well-timed and precisely targeted message for companies shaken by macroeconomic crises” -Financial Times
“Collins and Hansen draw some interesting and counterintuitive conclusions from their research….far from a dry work of social science. Mr. Collins has a way with words, not least with metaphor.” -Wall Street Journal
Entrepreneurs and business leaders may find the concepts in this book useful for making choices to increase their odds of building a great company. -Booklist
