Reflection report
Good to Great

In book Good to Great, the author Jim Collins concludes that it is possible for a good company to become a great company. Jim Collins and his research team were researching over five years to come to this conclusion, by examining from a list of 1435 companies, those that showed substantial improvements in their performance. Their final sample consists of eleven companies, which includes Abbot Laboratories, Circuit City, Fannie Mae, Gillette, Kimberly-Clark, Kroger, Nucor, Philip Morris, Pitney Bowes, Walgreens and Wells Fargo. They took these companies as an example of becoming from good to great and researched common characteristics that led to this development.

The success of a great company can not be simply attributed to lucky shots. Many entrepreneurs believe that the great companies have coincidences or inspirations, which guide them to the right way at a critical moment. Maybe lucky shots could accelerate the progress and improvements of companies in short term. However, Jim Collins indicated in his book that although some companies perform ingloriously in the traditional industry, they also have possibilities to be great. The hedgehog theory, strong organizational culture, technology, and the flywheel effect will lead the good companies to be great ones. Implementing the rules, regulations, and disciples are profoundly important.

I am not fully convinced that to become a great company, one must first shrink, down to the core. The point is that the core should be set in initial, gradually or at last. The essence of hedgehog concept is simplification. For instance, the fitness survive, Maxims and communisms, E=MC2 of Albert, Einstein, invisible hand and labor distribution, etc, all of these are the typical examples of hedgehog concept. However, the simplest but invaluable outcomes are based on numerous research and analysis because they sorted out all information and defined the concept so that the core can be discovered finally. Similarly, a good company is able to be great through the gradual improvements and escalating operational performances, it is only at last or during the operation that the core can be found by them. The core will be transformed as rules, regulations, polices or principles. What the companies expect is to find the core as soon as possible, but the truth is that the core can no be informed at very beginning.

The world is changing, and will continue to do so. But that does not mean we should stop the research for timeless principles. Think of it this way: While the practices of engineering continually evolve and change, the laws of physics remain relatively fixed. I like to think of our work as a reach for timeless principles-enduring physics of great organizations that will remain true and relevant no matter how the world changes around us. Yes, the specific application will change but certain immutable laws of organized human performance will endure.