Lessons to learn from the book Good to Great
Lessons to learn from the book Good to Great
It is 6 years later and the book is still being studied. In fact this summer it was again a “Heather’s Pick” at Chapters stores. While the companies in the book Good to Great are large publicly owned corporations I believe that many of its lessons can be applied to small, privately owned businesses. I regularly recommend it as essential reading to our clients, who are all small business entrepreneurs. Here are some of the lessons to be learnt from Good to Great.
Jim Collins and his research team found that the great companies, of which they only found eleven from the hundreds they researched, were fanatical about getting the right people “onto the bus” before they embarked on their journey. And while building the excellent team they followed three key principles based upon a belief that people are not your greatest asset, the right people are your greatest asset!
Principle 1: When in doubt, don’t hire – keep looking. In other words don’t go for second best. If you want to build a successful business you must have an excellent team. If there are doubts your intuition is probably telling you something; the candidate may look great but there is something that is just not right. Don’t be self pressured to hire because your business desperately needs another body; be patient, wait and it will happen.
Principle 2: When you know you need to make a people change act now! Despite all our best efforts mistakes are made and we either hire the wrong person or move the wrong person into a new position. You cannot afford to continue your journey until this is cleared up. To procrastinate is unfair to the person and unfair to your team. One bad apple negates all the good work being done by others.
Principle 3: Put your best people on the biggest opportunities not the biggest problems. Yes indeed! How often we hear that a critical problem has arisen but not to worry because Joe has been temporarily assigned to deal with it because after all he is brilliant. To bad his brilliance is not being applied to a big opportunity.
Another trait of these unique companies was that they would always face brutal facts head on and act on them. To quote Fred Purdue, then a Pitney Bowes executive: “When you turn over rocks and look at all the squiggly things underneath, you can either put the rock down or you can say – my job is to turn over rocks and look at the squiggly things even if what you see scares the hell out of you”. Whenever I must face a brutal fact, whether it is an upset client, disappointing financial results, or a failure in our product delivery, I remind myself of the squiggly things and deal with the issue. So the lesson is; face the brutal facts, act on them but maintain an unwavering belief that regardless of the present difficulty everything will turn out fine.
A culture of discipline; that’s what Collins and his team found was prevalent in these eleven great companies. But, do not confuse the culture of discipline with the discipline of a tyrant. And do not confuse the culture of discipline with the discipline of bureaucratic hierarchies. No, this does not mean that you rule with an iron fist and it does not mean that you must populate your organization with MBA organizational theories. Good-to-great companies are rigorous, not ruthless.
The lesson here is that you create a disciplined operation (see Emyth Revisited by Michael Gerber) so that your team can apply their talents and expertise to the success of the company. You give each of them the freedom to work within their area of responsibility while ensuring that the company culture supports asking for help and guidance when required. Of course none of this will mean a thing if you do not get the right self-disciplined people on the bus in the first place.
One of the remarkable disciplines of these eleven great companies was their ability to say NO! How difficult this is in the small business world. How difficult it is to turn down an opportunity to make money even if the opportunity is far removed from our business’s unique ability. Much of our work is keeping our clients focused on delivering what they do best to a client base that loves and respects them. To quote Jim Collins: “The real question is, once you know the right thing, do you have the discipline to do the right thing and, equally important, to stop doing the wrong things?”
Yes, Good to Great is a book describing the common attributes of eleven highly successful but publicly owned enterprises. But, what they did right to make themselves great can in most cases be applied to small and medium sized owner operated companies. There are more lessons inside the covers of this book so I will continue to recommend the book to any entrepreneur who wants to build a “great” business.
To leave the last word to Jim Collins: “Good is the enemy of great. And that is one of the key reasons why we have so little that becomes great.”
Lessons to learn from the book Good to Great - To learn more about this author, visit Nick Hughes's Website.
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The book Good to Great by Jim Collins was first published in 2001 and immediately caused a sensation. Its findings and conclusions about the attributes of truly great companies opened the eyes of many business strategists and the lessons learnt from it were applied in numerous organizations.
It is 6 years later and the book is still being studied. In fact this summer it was again a “Heather’s Pick” at Chapters stores. While the companies in the book Good to Great are large publicly owned corporations I believe that many of its lessons can be applied to small, privately owned businesses. I regularly recommend it as essential reading to our clients, who are all small business entrepreneurs. Here are some of the lessons to be learnt from Good to Great.
Jim Collins and his research team found that the great companies, of which they only found eleven from the hundreds they researched, were fanatical about getting the right people “onto the bus” before they embarked on their journey. And while building the excellent team they followed three key principles based upon a belief that people are not your greatest asset, the right people are your greatest asset!
Principle 1: When in doubt, don’t hire – keep looking. In other words don’t go for second best. If you want to build a successful business you must have an excellent team. If there are doubts your intuition is probably telling you something; the candidate may look great but there is something that is just not right. Don’t be self pressured to hire because your business desperately needs another body; be patient, wait and it will happen.
Principle 2: When you know you need to make a people change act now! Despite all our best efforts mistakes are made and we either hire the wrong person or move the wrong person into a new position. You cannot afford to continue your journey until this is cleared up. To procrastinate is unfair to the person and unfair to your team. One bad apple negates all the good work being done by others.
Principle 3: Put your best people on the biggest opportunities not the biggest problems. Yes indeed! How often we hear that a critical problem has arisen but not to worry because Joe has been temporarily assigned to deal with it because after all he is brilliant. To bad his brilliance is not being applied to a big opportunity.
Another trait of these unique companies was that they would always face brutal facts head on and act on them. To quote Fred Purdue, then a Pitney Bowes executive: “When you turn over rocks and look at all the squiggly things underneath, you can either put the rock down or you can say – my job is to turn over rocks and look at the squiggly things even if what you see scares the hell out of you”. Whenever I must face a brutal fact, whether it is an upset client, disappointing financial results, or a failure in our product delivery, I remind myself of the squiggly things and deal with the issue. So the lesson is; face the brutal facts, act on them but maintain an unwavering belief that regardless of the present difficulty everything will turn out fine.
A culture of discipline; that’s what Collins and his team found was prevalent in these eleven great companies. But, do not confuse the culture of discipline with the discipline of a tyrant. And do not confuse the culture of discipline with the discipline of bureaucratic hierarchies. No, this does not mean that you rule with an iron fist and it does not mean that you must populate your organization with MBA organizational theories. Good-to-great companies are rigorous, not ruthless.
The lesson here is that you create a disciplined operation (see Emyth Revisited by Michael Gerber) so that your team can apply their talents and expertise to the success of the company. You give each of them the freedom to work within their area of responsibility while ensuring that the company culture supports asking for help and guidance when required. Of course none of this will mean a thing if you do not get the right self-disciplined people on the bus in the first place.
One of the remarkable disciplines of these eleven great companies was their ability to say NO! How difficult this is in the small business world. How difficult it is to turn down an opportunity to make money even if the opportunity is far removed from our business’s unique ability. Much of our work is keeping our clients focused on delivering what they do best to a client base that loves and respects them. To quote Jim Collins: “The real question is, once you know the right thing, do you have the discipline to do the right thing and, equally important, to stop doing the wrong things?”
Yes, Good to Great is a book describing the common attributes of eleven highly successful but publicly owned enterprises. But, what they did right to make themselves great can in most cases be applied to small and medium sized owner operated companies. There are more lessons inside the covers of this book so I will continue to recommend the book to any entrepreneur who wants to build a “great” business.
To leave the last word to Jim Collins: “Good is the enemy of great. And that is one of the key reasons why we have so little that becomes great.”
Lessons to learn from the book Good to Great - To learn more about this author, visit Nick Hughes's Website.
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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Linda RichardsonLinda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website |
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Leanne Hoagland-SmithAre your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales or business success or one of the many who have failed to change? Are you tired of being told you are like everyone else? Then you may find my first book on sales of interest. Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales available at Amazon or at http://www.processspecialist.com/red-jacket.htm. This book is a reflection of my no-nonsense approach to improving sales to overall business results. If you are truly committed to making sustainable changes, then I can help you secure a positive return on your investment because I focus on executable solutions not telling you the problems you already know you have. From training to corporate (group) coaching to executive one on one coaching, my approach is to assess, create awareness, build a goal driven action plan and then execute. The bottom line question is "Not do you or your employees know it, but do you or they want to do it?" Please call for a free strategy session at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website |
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David AchesonDavid Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns. David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website |
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Joe DagerJoe Dager is President of Business901, a progressive coaching company providing no-nonsense direction in areas such as Lean Six Sigma Marketing and organized referral marketing. What others say: In the past 20 years, Joe and I have collaborated on many difficult issues. Joe’s ability to combine his expertise with “out of the box” thinking is unsurpassed. He has always delivered quickly, cost effectively and with ingenuity. A brilliant mind that is always a pleasure to work with.” - James R. If you want to learn more about Business901, start a conversation with us. We can be found @ Web/Blog: Business901.com Web/Blog: FundingYourNonprofit.com LinkedIn Profile Follow me on Twitter - Visit Joe Dager's Website |
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Dianne CramptonDianne Crampton is an executive leadership coach, team culture consultant, author and president of TIGERS Success Series, Inc. Dianne has been helping CEO's and Executives connect their employees to their core values and goals for over 20 years using the trademarked TIGERS team culture process, which stands for trust, interdependence, genuineness, empathy, risk and success. To download a free white paper on behaviors that build strong teams and behaviors that will predictably tear them down go here. Dianne's contribution to the 2010 Pfeiffer Consulting Journal (an imprint of John Wiley and Sons Publishers) entitled TIGERS Hearted Teams is available in November 2009. Her new book TIGERS Among Us: 5 Winning Business Team Cultures And Why, Three Creeks Publishing will release in March 2010. To receive publishing discounts, subscribe to the free TigerTracks Newsletter here. - Visit Dianne Crampton's Website |
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