《Good to Great》—Book Review

“Good to Great”, written by Jim Collins, is not only a guide book for company development but also can apply in self-development of every single person. It is mainly about the seven steps to constructing a system to turn a good or even bad company to a great company. I would like to share some feelings about this book with you in the following paragraphs. To start with, when talking about becoming great, there are seven pivotal steps that we must do. Firstly, we need to find the 5 level leadership. Secondly, finding the proper staff is more important than doing the proper things. Thirdly, confronting the brutal reality is also a necessity for being great. Fourthly, we should insisting on hedgehog concept throughout the process. Fifthly, we need to share a culture of discipline in the whole company. Sixthly, using technology as an accelerator when necessary. Seventhly, putting all these disciplines into practical management cyclically then we will make a difference and become great. As to the first step, finding the 5 level leadership, I think this is the key to the whole process. The core of 5 level leadership is to lead the company to gain sustaining development. A 5 level leadership can gain brilliant achievements in his or her duration and also can help construct a system to gain consisting achievements after his or her duration, this is the difference between a 4 level leadership and a 5 level leadership. Therefore, I think putting this discipline to priority is quite reasonable, since the company can do nothing without the prospective leadership. But how can the company find the 5 level leadership. Just as the writer said, the 5 level leadership is a mixture of humble and ambitious. He or she is always very humble in his or her everyday life, but when it comes to work, he or she will become ambitious and full of passionate. The 5 level leadership is the one who can put the benefits of the whole company into priority rather than his or her self-benefits. Additionally, we like to say that the managers who own 5 level leadership is always humble persons. They prefer to attribute the achievements of the company to having adapted to the great environment and seized proper opportunities rather than elaborate the efforts they have put to gain such great achievements. Referring to the second step, “first who then what”, we can see that after building a 5 level leadership, we need to consider inviting the proper staff to join us rather than doing something which seems to be wise and properly. The meaning of “proper staff” is that the staff can acutely find out the internal and external changes and rapidly react towards these changes. Thus, we do not worry about how to deal with increasingly updated business environment if we own proper staff. Besides, when welcoming these proper staff to the company, we need to get those improper staff out at the same time. For those improper staff can do nothing good or even will have bad effect on the company’s effort to be great. The greatest advantage of having the proper staff first is that you don’t have to worry about how to encourage these staff. The proper staff are always care less about what they gain but care more about whether it’s right to doing so. Once they think the thing is right and it can facilitate to the development of the company, they will put all of their efforts to do this thing without considering the incentives they can gain from doing so. And in picking out the proper staff, the great companies are always paying more attention on the personality and quality of the staff rather than the education background or skills. Because the skills can be learned in the everyday work but the proper quality is unique and decisive of a single person. When there are some ones in, there are always some ones out. Once we find out the improper staff, we need to get them out of the company immediately. To a great company, staff changing is happening throughout the whole business life, but there is one thing never change—it is that the proper staff is never replaced even in the most difficult time of the company. Plus, when considering how to use these precious staff, we must avoid assigning them to deal with the trouble we are faced with. A great company is a company which can allocate the proper staff to develop its career in the optimum business field. The third step, “confront the brutal facts”, tells us that no matter how optimistic we are feeling about the future or how many splendid accomplishments we get in the past, we must confront the reality, even though it’s brutal and fierce. It’s a simple concept but not an easy one. Everyone knows this concept but hardly understands it. And the one who can understand it can step one pace closer to be great. A great company is a complex body of “Stockdale Paradox”: Although the reality is quite cruel and even sometimes quite different with the goal of the company, the management group of the great company can stay calm and knowing well about target of their management and then do the right and proper decision, which is mainly benefit from the proper staff and 5 level leadership. Suffice to say, a great company is also a brave company, they are qualified with the ability to face the brutal facts and consider the trouble as an inspiration to push the company forward. But how could they be so optimistic and realistic at the same time? The key to answer the question is that the great companies know very well that they cannot make a series of right decisions without admitting and confronting the facts. Besides, these great companies also understand that avoiding the brutal environment cannot help them to gain information from the stakeholders such as the staff, vendors and customers. Of course this kind of loss will bring huge harm to the long run operation of the company, not mention being great. In all, confronting the facts is inevitable for a good company which want to be great. The forth step, “hedgehog concept”, is about the concept or the sense of value the great companies hold. It means that no matter how many changes under going in the business and social environment, the great companies are always performing as hedgehogs, not foxes, holding on their basic usually very simple conception. In this part, the writer mentioned a three-cycle theory which forms the core of the “hedgehog concept”. That is a great company is the overlap of three elements: knowing well about the field where you can perform the best, finding out the economic drives of doing your core business and being full of passion about the things you are doing at the same time. These three parts make up the guideline of “hedgehog concept”. Why do these three parts rather than others form the “hedgehog concept”? From my perspective, I think the reasons are as followed. For one thing, if the company cannot perform as the best one in its core business, then the core business cannot become its core. Obviously, a great company should be the company which possesses competitive core business and putting heart and soul into the core business is the only way to surpass other company and become great. Well, it come to the question about what’s the meaning of core business, as is said in the book, the core business is the business that you have the potential to exceed others and doing better than others. For another thing, economic supporting is the bedrock to develop core business. No company can expand and grow rapidly without the supporting of economic drives, such as cash flow and profits. Considering this issue, we must pay attention to that, one kind of index is always better than a variety of indexes, since one single index can contribute to gain better insight and deepen your understanding of the index which is absolutely do good to become great. Furthermore, passionate is a key part of “hedgehog concept”. Because you cannot inspire your staff to be passionate if you cannot create passionate. Thus, passionate forms the “hedgehog concept” as well as a great company. In conclusion, you could not regard a company which owns one part or two parts of the three elements as a great company. Only when it possesses all of the three element, can we say the company can be or will be a great company. Considering the fifth step, “culture of discipline”, the writer summarized four points to help us better understand this issue. Firstly, a great company usually build a kind of culture constructing with freedom and responsibility. Secondly, under this culture, staff are well disciplined and willing to undertake as much responsibility as possible. Thirdly, never regard a culture of disciplined as a culture of tyrannical. Fourthly, insisting on “hedgehog concept” and religiously following up the overlapping concept of three cycle theory. And clear out the things which are not related to the process of being great. In my opinion, these four points are not only provide with the foundation of “culture of discipline”, but also the elements of “culture of discipline”. On one hand, a great company usually builds a series of disciplines and give its staff the maximum freedom as well as responsibility under this kind of culture. This can be related to the first point of “culture of discipline”. On the other hand, a great company also tend to hire disciplined staff. Disciplined staff mean that the staff are higher self-disciplined and good follower of “hedgehog concept”, who are also the proper staff mentioned in the second step. When the company hire these discipline staff, there is no need to manage them, the managers only need to manage the system of the company. This can be related to the second point of the “culture of discipline”. In addition, a disciplined culture is consisted with self-disciplined staff and all of the company put the benefit of the company into the priority of their own accords, how can we look the company as a tyrannical one? This is related to the third part. To sum up, a disciplined culture can guide a good company usually hires disciplined staff, training them with disciplined culture and making them become part of the disciplined culture then everyone becomes brave and reality to confront the brutal facts as well as never lose faith in being great with the “hedgehog concept” and finally step into great. As of the sixth step, “technology accelerator”, the key point we must learn is that, the technology is never the reason to explain a great company’s achievements, it is just as the writer said, an accelerator. Technology is also not the key to the development of the company, the key to the development is using technology properly. And we can surprisingly find that the great companies are never using new technology at the beginning of transforming, for they all know that one can use the technology better and more proper when he or she is clear about what he or she need. What’s more, technology cannot make a good company to be a great one and it also cannot prevent the disaster the company is faced with. Therefore, as the writer said, depending on technology irrationally is a kind debt not a kind of asset. Above all, in order to make technology to become an impetus of development and serve the goal of being great, the company need to use technology rationally. Only when the technology are served as a contributor to a simple, consistency and well-understood conception, can the company step further to become great. Regarding to the seventh step, all what a good company need to do is to apply all these six steps into everyday business over and over again. And we must be clear that miracle is never occurred without a long term of struggling. The public always regard the splendid achievements of great companies as miracle, paying no attention to the efforts they did in gaining these achievements. But if a good company want to be great, it should pay more attention on the efforts and struggles behind the success of these great companies. Remember that to a company, one plus one has a plenty of possibilities. It can be a huge number beyond or under zero. This is all depend on how well the six steps are used in the company. In summary, in a company, the existing of every part of the system of the company is to strengthen other part of the system then facilitate to forming a concrete and efficient system. Finally, with these strengthened parts, the whole system becomes more powerful than the simply combination of every part. In the end, I would like to depict a concrete feeling of mine after finishing this book. Although it is a guide book to manage a company, I do think it can benefit the self-development of every single person. A person is just like a company, faced with a variety of challenges from internal and external environment. And also every one want to be great and want to make a difference, I am certain that one can gain the success under the guiding of the seven step of being great. Equipping yourself with the ability of 5 level leadership, finding the proper person to help you, being reality and bravely confronting the brutal facts, being a big fan of “hedgehog concept”, then being self-disciplined and clear about your goal and using the proper methods to facilitate your self-development and finally applying these disciplines into everyday life and training with them over and over again. Once we can follow all these steps, I am sure we could be more successful, and accomplish the life process of ourselves from good to great!