Good To Great: Why Some Companies Make The Leap and Others Don’t — Book Notes

Jim Collins

Published: 2000

Great company is defined as “fifteen-year cumulative stock returns at or below the general stock market, punctuated by a transition point, then cumulative returns at least three times the market over the next fifteen years.”

Good-to-great companies studied:

• Abbott
• Circuit City
• Fannie Mae
• Gillette
• Kimberly-Clark
• Kroger
• Nucor
• Philip Morris
• Pitney Bowes
• Walgreens
• Wells Fargo

Concept #1: Level 5 Leadership

“You can accomplish anything in life, provided that you do not mind who gets the credit.” — Harry S. Truman

• A Level 5 leader: an individual who blends extreme personal humility with intense professional will. Self-effacing individuals who displayed the fierce resolve to do whatever needed to be done to make the company great.
• Level 5 leaders channel their ego needs away from themselves and into the larger goal of building a great…