Good to Great - Jim Collins

Jim Collins ' Good to Great "  is a book about US's top companies and how did they emerge big from the rest. It is a result of a five year reseach program by Collins and his research team to find out what is so special about these great companies

Personally I don't have any interest in the management books, most of them are full of advice with lame examples of how to do this and how not to do that etc. It all started with some random friend's whatsapp status -" Stockdale paradox".  Stockdale Paradox is a chapter about a war veteran - Jim Stockdale who served in Vietnam for 7 years without a confirmed release date, After his relase he became a war hero. The author interviews Stockdale and asks him a question on how did have faith that you will be released, his reply is the Paradox of false hope and the truth about optimism "one should have unwavering faith that you will prevail at the end and at the same time to have the discipline to face the brutal truths of the current reality, what ever they might be". This was a chapter in the book so I decided to give it a shot as it seemed to be very different from what I have read till now.

I will not be able to review this book ad the others since it is not a typical novel its full of facts and figures with examples, its more of case studies but I try to keep simple to the point

The entire book is based on the figure below, literally in each chapter the author tries to explain each aspect of the figure . Each Section of a diagram represents the steps to be done in a company, Each explained with very clear concepts with examples of "great companies" and also from personal experiences.

Very simple , like step by step procedure on " How to build a great company". More like " Good to Great for Dummies". The book as such is like a training session, giving a summary of what is the gist of each chapter at the end. This book is not the opinion of the Author alone but the research program conducted in about 5 years, so there is a lot of facts and conclusions rather that just management fundas and concepts.

Since I am working in a corporate I was able to relate with what was told in the book in some points. The book is really convincing as it gives the actual results, with interviews with executives  on what happened in great companies and bad ones. Very similar to a documentary I would say!

The first chapter of the book is about " Level 5 leaders, the leaders who are capable of building a great company. In the first chapter the author doesn't give too much info on the qualities required by a level 5 leader. At the end he touches upon something thats quite simple and at the same time very convincing.
" if you love something you do then thats all matters"
An emotional ending to a very analytical book. This book is not only for management students, budding entrepreneurs. But for everyone . Its gives us a picture of what is really needed to be successful and in some cases we feel quite surprised to find some of the facts about these companies and their leaders. At the end the author tells a bid about his previous book -"Built to Last" I'll probably read it after reading this.