Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Intriguing Look Into Reasons For Success
I found great information and inspiration in Jim Collins' bestselling book, "Good To Great". This is a book that anyone who is ambitious and interested in success should read. I don't think that leaves many people out! Several reviewers have also mentioned Norman Thomas Remick's book, "West Point: Character Leadership..." as a great follow-on to "Good To Great". I have now read it and can subscribe to its being an intriguing look into the more basic reasons for success. I am now recommending both books to everyone in the world who makes enquires to our consulting firm.
Rating: - The best management book ever
The title of my review may seem extreme, but in my view, it's true. And, I've read hundreds of books on management. It is more useful that Drucker's best for the practicing manager. It avoids the tired cliches of many top sellers (e.g., moving some cheese somewhere--ugh) and it is applicable to any business, any size, most countries.I'm a Professor of Strategy at IMD (Lausanne, Switzerland). Built to Last was a regular part of the diet of material I've given to hundreds of managers over the past 7 years plus. Good to Great is even better. It's a brillant set of ideas not just for their importance, but their packaging. It's a joy to read. Most important: The ideas around the execution of strategy (90% of strategy anyway) are priceless. And, "correct." Discipline! Hedgehog concept. Stockdale paradox. Being "on the bus". Collin's gets a the core of what makes a company great. The book parallels much of my thinking, but Collins writes it better. Bravo for him! Personally, I find the level five leadership issues interesting, but less compelling than the second 2/3 of the book. But most managers love to read about leadership, and this is a great place to read about it. The heart of the book for me is when he talks about the choices and discipline that firms need to make, and live by. Very difficult to do in the "real world," but essential. Without this focus and clear choice, energy, emotion, and talent is disipated. No way to win in today's world. Congratulations to Jim Collins. And thank you! Andy Boynton
Professor of Strategy
IMD, Lausanne
Rating: - Good to Great is a Great Book
Every once and a while a business book comes along that revolutionizes our thinking and becomes a classic. Good to great is just such a book. The book starts with the provocative statement "Good is the enemy of great." Collins then develops objective criteria that differentiated the good from the great companies, and noted that there is a point at which the great companies started behaving remarkably differently from their good counterparts. The great companies "attained extraordinary results, averaging cumulative stock returns 6.9 times the general market in the fifteen years following their transition from good to great." Collins then compares these extraordinary companies with other companies, which remained good but did not reach the transition from good to great. Amongst the factors that differentiated the great companies were level 5 leadership, hiring the right people and letting go of the wrong, confronting all of the facts -- especially the brutal ones, developing an incredible focus and a culture of discipline, using technology accelerators, developing momentum that reaches a critical mass. This book is like a superb seven course meal and it will challenge your view of the world as it did mine - and we will all be better off for having read it.
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