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A book Summary of Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…And Others Don’t by Jim Collins
Authored by Jim Collins and published by Harper Collins Publishers in the year 2001, the book Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…And Others Don’t probably serves as one of the greatest pieces of writing that give the corporate world a keen look and analyze the interplay of various factors that are contributory to success as well as those that make corporate organizations fail. In 320 pages, Collins presents a precisely organized argument and clearly indicates awareness on the corporate world.
The book is organized and presented in an outline of nine chapters and an epilogue. The last four chapters that begin from chapter six, provide the run up of considerations that culminate into considerable business success. Chapter six of the book runs from page 120 to page 144 and is entitled A Culture of Discipline. This chapter draws the line of code of conduct that is expected of business practitioners. To this extent, there are practices that one must commit to and those that various individuals including managers, employees, and business relations personnel must avoid in order to attribute themselves to success.
The next chapter is dubbed Technology Accelerators and specifically deals with the organization of technological tools and the way they are used in enhancing business success. It clearly emerges that technology has a role to play in business, and the way it is adapted by some organizations determines whether they will be successful or not. At the same time, companies that ignore technology or adapt its uses without proper considerations end up failing in ventures.
The Flywheel and the Doom Loop run from page 164 to page 187. This is yet another part of the book building a strategy of what must and what must not be done in business to contribute to success and failure in business. The last chapter is the culmination of the topic of the book. The last chapter is the culmination of the topic of the book. The last chapter is the culmination of the topic of the book. From Good to Great to built to last. This is followed by the epilogue which contains commonly asked business questions that relate to business success.
In the appendices, the book offers direct comparisons of various businesses and their application of the analyzed facts in enhancing success and business growth. The first is A & P, characterized by hiring and firing of CEOs and employees alongside building theories of anticipated success which never comes to be. Addressograph’s era of ‘The Sky is Falling’ that was characterized by their claim of ‘total corporate rejuvenation’ which also comes to collapse and end in bankruptcies. Other organizations analyzed include the Bank of America, Bethlehem Steel, Eckerd, The Great Western Financial, R. J. Reynolds, Scott Paper, Silo, Upjohn, and Warner Lambert.
In successive considerations, there is an analysis of unsustained comparisons which begin with Burroughs that succeeds and fails in different fits as it changes CEO’s and policies as soon as CEO’s are changed. Other analyses in this section include great companies like Chrysler, Harris, Hasbro, Rebbermaid, and Teledyne among others.
In sum, the book Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…And Others Don’t by Jim Collins offers an incisive analysis of the corporate world. The book gives compelling evidence to support its position and real time examples of how the principles it presents are applicable. To students, teachers, and practitioners in the corporate world, this book is a must read.
