Good to Great - Podcast Shows - Bookish Discussion

This book explores how some companies make the leap from good to great, while others do not. The book is dedicated to the "Chimps". The preface describes the author's thought process and motivations for writing the book. Collins states that the book is the result of a research project, driven by "undaunted curiosity," to understand what makes great organizations. The research method involved contrasting good-to-great companies with comparison companies, asking "What's different?". The book's concepts are based on empirical deductions directly from the data. The author also notes that the concepts are not his "opinions" and that each concept met a rigorous standard before being included in the book. The core concepts were found to be present as change variables in 100% of the good-to-great companies and in less than 30% of the comparison companies during their pivotal years. The book is about the timeless principles of good-to-great, not about the old or new economy. The author states that his work is about discovering what creates enduring great organizations, using corporations as a means of getting inside the "black box," because they have a widely agreed upon definition of results and easily accessible data. The book is ultimately about how to take a good organization and turn it into one that produces sustained great results, using whatever definition of results best applies to the organization