How to Go from Good to Great is a research-based exploration of what it takes to turn ordinary companies into great companies.
The messages in this book are not solely aimed at business people as many can be applied to social and everyday life in general.
The book breaks the process of transformation from "How to Go from Good to Great" into three broad stages: disciplined people, disciplined thought, and disciplined action. There are also two key concepts within each of these three stages. These six concepts are the essence of "How to Go from Good to Great" and assigns a chapter for each of them; Level 5 Leadership, First Who... Then What, Confront the Brutal Facts, The Hedgehog Concept, A Culture of Discipline, and Technology Accelerators.
The book clearly defines that during the transition from good to great, companies should first have the right people on the bus (and the wrong people off the bus) and then try to figure out where to drive it. Actually, this was not what they expected before the project. They thought that the first step would be to set up a new direction, strategy, and vision for the company. The truth is that if you get the right people on the bus, the right people in the right seats, and the wrong people off the bus, they will drive the company somewhere great.
A cycle of good decisions is one of the key factors in the success of the great companies and the author and his research team made a clear clarification of its process. The Hedgehog Concept differentiates between CEOs. Collins has very appropriately included Isaiah Berlin's essay, "The Hedgehog and the Fox," in which he refers to a Greek parable: "The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing." According to the results of the huge project, the good-to-great companies were built by "hedgehogs", people who were capable of focusing on one important thing that carried their companies to greatness. There are three circles of the Hedgehog Concept "what you are deeply passionate about, what you can be the best in the world at and what drives your economic engine" and companies need all three circles in order to have a fully developed concept.
How to Go from Good to Great identifies that good-to-great companies build steady systems with clear restrictions, but they also gave people freedom and responsibility within the framework of a highly developed system. This begins with the right people who take disciplined action and are consistent with the three circles of the hedgehog concept. There are two types of individuals: those who see their job as a "responsibility" and those who see their job as a "job." The first type of people would take the company to greatness as theirresponsibility. They "engage in disciplined thoughts and take disciplined actions" to work out any possibilities to help the company become the best in the world. Their own objectives and the company's objectives are parallel, so they believe that if they spend time on the company's objective, their own objective will become true automatically. The second type of people do not pay attention to responsibilities and disciplines. They just want to work to meet the basic requirements and only expect to get their wage on time.
If you are looking for "the magic bullet" that creates success then "How to Go from Good to Great" might not be for you, but if you are looking for interesting ideas that help develop you and your business, this book does just that.