In Good To Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap...And Others Don't, the author uses fully researched data to form conclusions on why companies fail to transition between being average to being great while others succeed. For the purpose of the book, being great has been defined as financial performance of companies that far exceed the norms set by others.
Jim Collins created the concept of this book after writing another management study that talked about the methodology of infusing a company with the DNA it needs to achieve greatness. This book talks about what a company can do when it isn’t born with great DNA. For the purpose of the study, the author used a team of researchers who reportedly studied 6,000 articles, transcribed 2,000 pages from interviews and also generated 384 megabytes of data during a five-year project.
The book highlights seven different characteristics that are inherent qualities of great companies. These include the type of leadership that a company requires, the act of recruiting the right people before proceeding with operations and the use of technology as a factor to stimulate your company’s growth.
Companies that are categorized as great in Good To Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap...And Others Don't include the Gillette Company, Kimberly Clark and Wells Fargo. There are also comparators that are used as examples of similar companies that were present in similar spaces who failed to transition into greatness. The comparators include Bank Of America, Great Western Bank and Silo.
Good To Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap...And Others Don't is considered one of the most influential management books of its time. Many members belonging to The Wall Street Journal’s CEO council have considered the book to be the best management book they have ever read. The acclaim translated to 4 million copies sold and it transcended from the usual audience of a business book to a much wider audience.