Good To Great - Management According To Collins

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Management

According to Collins

In his book, Good to Great, Jim Collins gives a detailed comparison between companies that are able to excel continually in their field and companies that are either mediocre or one hit wonders. Through their research his team was able to find distinct characteristics having to do with leadership, planning or purpose, human and technological resources, and discipline that differentiate the great businesses from the ordinary ones. Some of the main ideas that Collins’ focuses on are the Level 5 leader, the Hedgehog Concept and the Culture of Discipline, which all fit together to transform a simply good business into one that has long lasting cumulative returns much higher than that of the market (8). These ideas are what form Collins’ model of management based on their application to planning, organizing, leadership and control, of which many have connection with the theories of previous authors such as Deming, Anderson, and Stack. Like some of these authors, Collins’ model is based on a transformation, however his transformation is not based on a fast acting catalyst, instead it focuses on finding the right product, understanding it, and then building momentum around it that will eventually take the company to the top. Once a company becomes great, Collins’ describes how certain aspects of the company must remain the same, specifically the discipline towards the planned focus of the company, while others, such as strategy and operating practices must adapt to changes (197).

The method that Jim Collin’s and his team of researches used was based on first finding the right companies and then recording not only what they observed but also documents and articles written on the company both external...

... middle of paper ...

...right things while discontinuing the wrong ones (140).

Throughout his book, Collins shows us that when all of these different functions of management are applied, the success of the business should be set in motion. He also proves that as long as the company continues to do what makes it successful when it will build momentum until it becomes great. Once the business has become great, it should be very simple to keep it that way as long as the disciplined culture continues to focus the business’s energies. However most of this depends on the leaders within the company, and whether or not they are willing to apply the concepts of this book and become level five leaders, that are successful for the company as a whole and not just themselves.

Works Cited

Collins, Jim. Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Other Don’t.

New York: HarperCollins, 2001.

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