Good to Great (Jim Collins, 2001)

Back in my retail days, when I was impervious to long hours and low pay, Good to Great was one of a number of business titles I read in my quest for superior inventory management techniques. As I wrapped up grad school and got out of management, I lost interest in reading them and at times I felt outright hostile to Good to Great. After all a book that extols the virtues of Fannie Mae (corruption) and Circuit City (bankruptcy) must have missed the mark.

Much to my surprise as I returned to a leadership role in my career, I found that people still recommended this book. So, with a measure of trepidation, I returned to Jim Collins's masterwork. I have to say, although it takes some brain power to disassociate a number of distasteful events that affected the "good-to-great" companies, the principles distilled from his thorough research still resonate strongly. Overall, the trick is to work from the inside out, starting with "Level 5 leadership", then getting the right people on board, before working on the one great concept you're passionate about and can be the best at (the "hedgehog concept").

I've been long aware that this book is a "prequel" of sorts to Collins's earlier book Built to Last. He connects concepts between the two books at the end and I think I'll need to go back and read that one to fully grasp some of the points. Also, I think some brain power will be necessary to translate the stories of successful publicly-traded for-profit companies to a library environment. It's not easy, but I know the connections are there.

As an amusing aside, the touting of "hedgehog" puts Collins in direct contrast with an earlier book I read this year, The Signal and the Noise by Nate Silver. In that book, Silver advocates for the "fox" instead. However, he was advising this for aspiring political pundits, not business leaders, so take that whichever way you like!