"We cannot predict the future, but we can create it." Thus begins another business master work by Jim Collins. The question that Collins and co-author Morton Hansen seek to answer this time around is the following: "Why do some companies thrive in uncertainty, even chaos, and others don't?"

The authors follow a familiar template presented in previous works including Built to Last, Good to Great and How The Mighty Fall. Compare a small list of similar companies over time. One succeeds, the other fails. Why?

In Great by Choice, Collins introduces several success concepts that all business managers should become familiar with. In particular, leaders of the successful companies consistently exhibited the following three core behaviors:

~ fanatic discipline
~ empirical creativity
~ productive paranoia

Fanatic discipline is characterized by "The 20 Mile March," a philosophy of having concrete, clear, intelligent, and rigorously pursued performance mechanisms that keep you on track.

Empirical creativity is exemplified by firing "Bullets, Then Cannonballs." First learn what works with low risk, low cost, low distraction forays into business growth opportunities. Many of these bullets won't hit their target. Once one does, be prepared to fire a cannonball, a large scale effort to move the company forward.

Productive paranoia encompasses three dimensions that revolve around obsessive preparation -- ahead of time, all the time -- for events that cannot be predicted.

To help reinforce that value of these concepts Collins and Hansen relive the journeys of explorations to the South Pole and quests to climb Mount Everest. Some expeditions succeeded, while others failed, tragically.

Business success or failure may not be life and death. However, why take unnecessary chances? Read Great by Choice and tip the scales in your favor.