Jim Collins

good-to-great

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Beyond Entrepreneurship 2.0

A Monograph to Accompany Good to Great

Turning the Flywheel

Uncertainty, Chaos and Luck - Why Some Thrive Despite Them All

Great by Choice

And Why Some Companies Never Give In

How the Mighty Fall

Good to Great and the Social Sectors

Successful Habits of Visionary Companies

Built To Last

Good To Great

...the biggest selling and most influential management book of the new millennium.

Peppered with dozens of stories and examples from the great and not-so-great, Collins lays a well-reasoned roadmap to excellence that any organisation would do well to consider. Like Built to Last, Good to Great is one of those books that managers and CEOs will be reading and rereading for years to come.

in this category (management books) there is nothing to touch Jim Collins... It is essential reading.

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Can a good company become a great one? If so, how? 
 
After a five-year research project, Jim Collins concludes that good to great can and does happen. In this book, he uncovers the underlying variables that enable any type of organisation to make the leap from good to great while other organisations remain only good. Rigorously supported by evidence, his findings are surprising - at times even shocking - to the modern mind. 
 
Good to Great achieves a rare distinction: a management book full of vital ideas that reads as well as a fast-paced novel. It is widely regarded as one of the most important business books ever written.

Jim Collins, bestselling author of Built to Last returns with Good to Great, a look at what it takes to succeed in business and how a good company can become a great one.

In 1996, Jim Collins and his research team set out to answer one simple question: 'Can a good company become a great company and, if so, how?' Most great companies grew up with superb parents - founders like George Merck, David Packard, and Walt Disney - who instilled the seeds of greatness early on. But what about the vast majority of companies that wake up part way through life and realize that they're good, but not great? 
 
With 21 research associates working in groups of four to six at a time over a period of nearly five years, the study involved a wide range of both qualitative and quantitative analyses and examined 1,435 Fortune 500 companies. On the qualitative front, they collected thousands of articles, conducted interviews with key executives, analyzed internal strategy documents, and culled analyst reports. Quantitatively, they ran financial metrics, examined executive compensation, compared patterns of management turnover, quantified company layoffs and restructurings, and calculated the effect of acquisitions and divestitures on performance. They then synthesized the results to identify the drivers of good-to-great transformations. 
 
And what did Collins and his team discover? They found the key concepts that permitted these good-to-great companies to achieve cumulative stock returns 6.9 times the stock market in fifteen years. To put that in perspective, that's a rate better than twice the rate achieved by General Electric. Put another way, a dollar invested in a mutual fund of the good-to-great companies in 1965 grew to $470 by 2000 - compared to just $56 in the general stock market. These are extraordinary numbers, made all the more so by the fact they came from previously unremarkable companies.

Jim Collins is author or co-author of six books that have sold more than 10 million copies worldwide, including the bestsellers Good to Great, Built to Last, and How the Mighty Fall. Jim began his research and teaching career on the faculty at Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he received the Distinguished Teaching Award in 1992. He now operates a management laboratory in Boulder, Colorado, where he conducts research, teaches, and consults with executives from the corporate and social sectors. 
 
More about Jim and his works can be found at his e-teaching site, where he has assembled articles, audio clips, a recommended reading list, discussion guide, tools, and other information. The site is designed to be a place for students to study and learn: www.jimcollins.com

Good To Great

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