You are looking at posts that were written on August 29th, 2008.
Posted on August 29th, 2008 by Brian Sparks.
Categories: Book Notes, Good to Great, Leadership.
“Hedgehogs, on the other hand, simplify a complex world into a single organizing idea, a basic principle or concept that unifies and guides everything. It doesn’t matter how complex the world, a hedgehog reduces all challenges and dilemmas to simple-indeed almost simplistic – hedgehog ideas. For a hedgehog, anything that does not somehow relate to the hedgehog idea holds no relevance” (page 91).
“No, the hedgehogs aren’t simpletons; they have a piercing insight that allows them to see through complexity and discern underlying patterns. Hedgehogs see what is essential, and ignore the rest” (page 91).
“Those who built the good-to-great companies were, to one degree or another, hedgehogs. They used 4their hedgehog nature to drive toward what we came to call a Hedghog Concept for their companies. Those who lead the comparison companies tended to be foxes, never gaining the clarifying advantage of a Hedgehog Concept, being instead scattered, diffused, and inconsistent” (page 92).
“In a world overrun by management faddists, brilliant visionaries, ranting futureists, fearmongers, motivational gurus, and all the rest, it’s refreshing to see a company succeed so brilliantly by taking one simple concept and just doing it with excellence and imagination. Becoming the best in the world at convenient drugstores, steadily increasing profit per customer visit-what could be more obvious and straightfoward?” (page 93).
“More precisely, a Hedgehog Concept is a simple, crystalline concept that flows from deep understanding about the intersection of the following three circles:
“Suppose you were able to construct a work life that meets the following three tests. First, you are doing work for which you have a genetic or God-given talent, and perhaps you could become one of the best in the world in applying that talent…Second, you are well paid for what you do…Third, you are doing work you are passionate about and absolutely love to do, enjoying the actual process for its own sake” (page 96).
“A Hedgehog Concept is not a goal to be the best, a strategy to be the best, an intention to be the best, a plan to be the best. It is an understanding of what you can be the best at” (page 98).
“Just because something is your core business-just because you’ve been doing it for years or perhaps even decades-does not necessarily mean that you can be the best in the world at it. And if you cannot be the best in the world at your core business, then your core business cannot form the basis of your Hedgehog Concept” (page 99).
“The Hedgehog Concept requires a severe standard of excellence. It’s not just about building on strength and competence, but about understanding what your organization truly has the potential to be the very best at and sticking to it” (page 100).
“To go from good to great requires transcending the curse of competence. It requires the discipline to say, “Just because we are good at it-just because we’re making money and generating growth-doesn’t necessarily mean we can become the best at it.” The good-to-great companies understood that doing what you are good at will only make you good; focusing solely on what you can potentially do better than any other organization is the only path to greatness” (page 100).
“Our study clearly shows that a company does not need to be in a great industry to become a great copany. Each good-to-great company built a fabulous economic engine, regardless of the industry. They were able to do this because they attained profound insights into their economics” (page 104).
“But throughout the good-to-great companies, passion became a key part of the Hedgehog Concept. You can’t manufacture passion or “motivate” people to feel passionate. You can only discover what ignites your passion and the passions of those around you” (page 109).
“The good-to-great companies did not say, ‘Okay, folks, let’s get passionate about what we do.’ Sensibly, they went the other way entirely: We should only do those things that we can get passionate about” (page 109).
“What’s so striking about the comparison companies is that – for all their change programs, frantic gesticulations, and charismtic leaders-they rarely emerged from the fog. They would try to run, making bad decisions at forks in the read, and then have to reverse course later. Or they would veer off the trail entirely, banging into trees and tumbling down ravines. (Oh, but they were sure doing it with speed and panache!)
“For the comparison companies, the exact same world that had become so simple and clear to the good-to-great companies remained complex and shrouded in mist. Why? For two reasons. First, the comparison companies never asked the right questions, the questions prompted by the three circles. Second, they set their goals and strategies more from bravado than from understanding.
“Nowhere is this more evident than in the comparison companies’ mindless pursuit of growth: Over two thirds of the comparison companies displayed an obsession with growth without the benefit of a Hedgehog Concept. Statements such as ‘We’ve been a growth at any price company’ and ‘Betting that size equals success’ pepper the materials on the comparison companies. In contrast, not one of the good-to-great companies focused obsessively on growth. Yet they created sustained, profitable growth far greater than the comparison companies that made growth their mantra” (page 111).
“If you have the right Hedgehog Concept and make decisions relentlessly consistendt with it, you will create such momentum that your main problem will not be how to grow, but how not to grow too fast” (page 112).
“The Hedgehog Concept is the turning point in the journey from good to great. In most cases, the transition date follows within a few years of the Hedgehog Concept” (page 112).
Posted on August 29th, 2008 by Brian Sparks.
Categories: Book Notes, Good to Great, Leadership.
Posted on August 29th, 2008 by Brian Sparks.
Categories: Book Notes, Good to Great, Leadership.
“There is no worse mistake in public leadership than to hold out false hopes soon to be swept away” (page 65, taken from Winston S. Churchill).
“The good-to-great companies displayed two distinctive forms of disciplined thought. The first, and the topic of this chapter, is that they infused the entire process with the brutal facts of reality. (The second is that they developed a simple, yet deeply insightful, frame of reference for all decisions.) When you start with an honest and diligent effort to determine the truth of the situation, the right decisions often become self-evident” (page 70).
“You absolutely cannot make a series of good decisions without first confronting the brutal facts” (page 70).
“The moment a leader allows himself to become the primary reality people worry about, rather than reality being the primary reality, you have a recipe for mediocrity, or worse. This is one of the key reasons why less charismatic leaders often produce better lang-term results than their more charismatic counterparts” (page 72).
“Indeed, for those of you with a strong, charismatic personality, it is worthwhile to consider the idea that charisma can be as much a liability as an asset. Your strength of personality can sow the seeds of problems, when people filter the brutal facts from you. You can overcome the liabilities of having charisma, but it does require conscious attention” (page 73).
A Climate Where the Truth is Heard
“Leading from good to great does not mean coming up with the answers and then motivating everyone to follow your messianic vision. It means having the humility to grasp the fact that you do not yet understand enough to have the answers and then to ask the questions that will lead to the best possible insights.
“Life is unfair – sometimes to our advantage, sometimes to our disadvantage. We will all experience disappointments and crushing events somewhere along the way, setbacks for which there is no “reason,” no one to blame. It might be disease; it might be injury; it might be an accident; it might be losing a loved one; it might be getting swept away in a political shake-up; it might be getting shot down over Vietnam and thrown into a POW camp for eight years. What separates people, Stockdale taught me, is not the presence or absence of difficulty, but how they deal with the inevitable difficulties of life. In wrestling with life’s challenges, the Stockdale Paradox (you must retain faith that you will prevail in the end and you must also confront the most brutal facts of your current reality) has proved powerful for coming back from difficultites not weakened, but stronger – not just for me, but for all those who’ve learned the lesson and tried to apply it” (page 86).
“The good-to-great leaders were able to strip away so much noise and clutter and just focus on the few things that would hae the greatest impact. They were able to do so in large part because they operated from both sides of the Stockdale Paradox, never letting one side overshadow the other. If you are able to adopt this dual pattern, you will dramatically increase the odds of making a series of good decisions and ultimately discovering a simple, yet deeply insightful, concept for making the really big choices. And once you have that simple, unifying concept, you will be very close to making a sustained transition to breakthrough results” (page 87).
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