Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap...And Others Don't

by Jim Collins

Good is the enemy of great. And that is one of the key reasons why we have so little that becomes great.

The good-to-great companies did not focus principally on what to do to become great; they focused equally on what not to do and what to stop doing.

two big mediocrities joined together never make one great company.

Under the right conditions, the problems of commitment, alignment, motivation, and change largely melt away.

Greatness is not a function of circumstance. Greatness, it turns out, is largely a matter of conscious choice.

“People are your most important asset” turns out to be wrong. People are not your most important asset. The right people are.

When you have disciplined people, you don’t need hierarchy. When you have disciplined thought, you don’t need bureaucracy. When you have disciplined action, you don’t need excessive controls. When you combine a culture of discipline with an ethic of entrepreneurship, you get the magical alchemy of great performance.

That good is the enemy of great is not just a business problem. It is a human problem.

“The best students are those who never quite believe their professors.”

“One ought not to reject the data merely because one does not like what the data implies.”