Good to Great by Jim Collins is a classic business book. Its lessons are timeless for anyone trying to run a department or a company.
No summary is adequate for conveying all the book has to offer. It’s a worthy read from beginning to ending.
That said, here are a couple of our takeaways:
- The best companies attend first to getting the right people in the right positions. They don’t pull the trigger on a hire when they have doubts, they hire based on character, not skills or educational credentials, and they put their best people on their biggest opportunities not their biggest problems. THIS IS CHALLENGING ADVICE TO FOLLOW based on our work with clients. That does not mean it’s bad advice.
- The best companies drive alignment by conveying their value proposition to the market in a simple message for both internal and external consumption.
The best companies esteem discipline. - That is, the best companies become cultures of self-disciplined individuals who work toward meeting clear expectations set by the organization.
Let us know if you have questions or would like help sorting through the challenge of hiring the right people.
The quotes:
“A company should limit its growth based on its ability to attract enough of the right people.” ― James Collins
“The moment you feel the need to tightly manage someone, you’ve made a hiring mistake.” ― James Collins
“What separates people, Stockdale taught me, is not the presence or absence of difficulty, but how they deal with the inevitable difficulties of life.” ― James Collins