“Good is the enemy of great.
“And that is one of the key reasons why we have so little that becomes great” (page 1).
Nine surprises in great companies
- Larger-than-life, celebrity leaders who ride in from the outside are negatively correlated with taking a company from good to great. Ten of eleven good-to-great CEOs came from the inside the company.
- We found no systematic pattern linking specific forms of executive compensation to the process of going from good to great. The idea that the structure of executive compensation is a key driver in corporate performance is simply not supported by the data.
- There is no evidence that the good-to-great companies spent more time on long-ranger strategic planning than the comparison companies.
- The good-to-great companies did not focus principally on what to do to become great; they focused equally on whatnot to do and what to stop doing.
- The good-to-great companies paid scant attention to managing change, motivating people, or creating alignment. Under the right conditions, the problems of commitment, alignment, motivation, and change largely melt away.
- Greatness is not a function of circumstance. Greatness, it turns out, is largely a matter of conscious choice. (page 10-11).
Framework of concepts
- Level 5 leadership. We were surprised, shocked really, to discover the type of leadership required for turning a good company into a great one…Self-effacing, quiet, reserved, even shy-these leaders are a paradoxical blend of personal humility and professional will.
- First Who…Then What. We expected that good-to-great leders would begin by setting a new vision and strategy. We found instead that they first got the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people in the right seats-and then they figured out where to drive it. The old adage “People are your most important asset” turns out to be wrong. People are not your most important asset. The right people are. [We have deacons who wouldn't know how to serve if it sat in their lap and called them mommy.]
- Confront the Brutal Facts (Yet Never Lose Faith). You must maintain unwavering faith that you can and will prevail in the end, regardless of the difficulties, AND at the same time have the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.
- The Hedgehog Concept (Simplicity within the Three Circles).
- A Culture of Discipline. When you have disciplined people, you don’t need hierarchy. When you have disciplined thought, you don’t need bureaucracy. When you have disciplined action, you don’t need excessive controls.
- Technology Accelerators. (page 12-13).
“Those who launch revolutions, dramatic change programs, and wrenching restructurings will almost certainly fail to make the leap from good to great. No matter how dramatic the end result, the good-to-great transformations never happened in one fell swoop. There was no ingle defining action, no grand program, no one killer innovation, no solitary lucky break, no miracle moment. Rather, the process resembled relentlessly pushing a gieant heavy flywheel in one direction, turn upon turn, building momentum until a point of breakthrough, and beyond” (page 14).