A Good Book
Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap...and Others Don't by Jim Collins

The question led to a five-year research study culminating in Good to Great, a book that reveals how some companies made the leap from good to great and sustained their growth for 15 years or more, while others did not. Collins and his research team discovered some surprising facts and ideas, many of which “fly in the face of our modern business culture” says Collins.

First, the findings revealed that good-to-great companies had Level 5 Leadership – leaders who combined deep humility with a fierce resolve to get the best results. These leaders were more ambitious for their companies than for themselves. They tended to give others credit for the company’s successes, but took responsibility for its mistakes and learned from them.

Collins also purports that great companies make sure they have the right people in the right positions before they decide where they want to go. Leadership and the right people make up the first of three stages in the transformation from good to great, according to Collins.

The next stage in Collins’ theory focuses on disciplined thought. He recommends rigorous data gathering and analysis of the current business reality no matter how awful the picture. His research suggests that good-to-great companies figured out what they could be best at and could care deeply about and what was the single denominator that had greatest impact on their economics. Over time, these became clear advantages for the companies that sustained growth.

Stage three of the good-to-great transformation calls for a culture of discipline in which self-disciplined people engage in disciplined thought and then take disciplined action with an almost fanatical consistency. Companies that applied the discipline to every aspect of their business, especially to budgeting, fared better than companies that could not resist the “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” temptation. Collins also warns against trying to do more and more to gain momentum because it rarely works. Instead, he advocates “stop doing” lists for all the extraneous activities.

Among business CEOs Good to Great is a must read, if for no other reason than the competition is reading it. But does it have anything to offer for higher education? I would contend that it does. UC, like other research universities, is a vital driver of local and national economies. Like other institutions of higher education UC must compete for students in an increasingly tough market. As UC embarks on the implementation of the UC|21 plan, we would do well to consider and learn from successful transformations in the business world as well as successful transformations in the world of higher education.

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