Turning the Flywheel Quotes

“For a truly great company, the Big Thing is never any specific line of business or product or idea or invention. The Big Thing is your underlying flywheel architecture, properly conceived”
― Jim Collins, Turning the Flywheel: A Monograph to Accompany Good to Great

“Great organizations understand the difference between their core values and purpose (which almost never change), and operating strategies and cultural practices (which endlessly adapt to a changing world).”
― Jim Collins, Turning the Flywheel: A Monograph to Accompany Good to Great

“The flywheel, when properly conceived and executed, creates both continuity and change. On the one hand, you need to stay with a flywheel long enough to get its full compounding effect. On the other hand, to keep the flywheel spinning, you need to continually renew, and improve each and every component.”
― Jim Collins, Turning the Flywheel: A Monograph to Accompany Good to Great

“Each turn builds upon previous work as you make a series of good decisions, supremely well executed, that compound one upon another. This is how you build greatness.”
― Jim Collins, Turning the Flywheel: A Monograph to Accompany Good to Great

“There are two possible explanations for a stalled or stuck flywheel. Possible explanation #1: The underlying flywheel is just fine, but you’re failing to innovate and execute brilliantly on every single component; the flywheel needs to be reinvigorated. Possible explanation #2: The underlying flywheel no longer fits reality and must be changed in some significant way. It’s imperative that you make the right diagnosis.”
― Jim Collins, Turning the Flywheel: A Monograph to Accompany Good to Great

“What matters most is how well you understand your flywheel and how well you execute on each component over a long series of iterations.”
― Jim Collins, Turning the Flywheel: A Monograph to Accompany Good to Great

“the greatest danger in business and life lies not in outright failure but in achieving success without understanding why you were successful in the first place.”
― Jim Collins, Turning the Flywheel: A Monograph to Accompany Good to Great

“Una empresa verdaderamente extraordinaria hace una contribución tan importante a la comunidad y hace su trabajo de una forma tan excelente que, si desapareciera, dejaría un vacío que no podría restituirse fácilmente con ninguna otra institución del planeta.”
― Jim Collins, Girando la rueda: ¿Por qué algunas empresas generan impulso y otras no?

“el declive de las empresas que una vez fueron extraordinarias suele ocurrir en cinco etapas: (1) la arrogancia que nace del éxito, (2) la búsqueda indisciplinada de algo más, (3) la negación del riesgo y el peligro, (4) aferrarse a la salvación y (5) la capitulación a la irrelevancia o la muerte.”
― Jim Collins, Girando la rueda: ¿Por qué algunas empresas generan impulso y otras no?

“Todas las grandes empresas acaban teniendo varias ruedas derivadas de la original girando al mismo tiempo, cada una de ellas con sus propios matices. Pero, para conseguir el mayor impulso, todas ellas han de estar vinculadas por una lógica fundamental. Y cada rueda derivada debe encajar perfectamente y contribuir en ese engranaje.”
― Jim Collins, Girando la rueda: ¿Por qué algunas empresas generan impulso y otras no?

“the big winners in corporate history consistently surpassed a threshold level of innovation required to compete in their industries. But what truly set the big winners apart was their ability to turn initial success into a sustained flywheel, even if they started out behind the pioneers”
― James C. Collins, Turning the Flywheel: A Monograph to Accompany Good to Great

“what truly set the big winners apart was their ability to turn initial success into a sustained flywheel, even if they started out behind the pioneers.”
― Jim Collins, Turning the Flywheel: A Monograph to Accompany Good to Great

“Compile a list of failures and disappointments. This should include new initiatives and offerings by your enterprise that have failed outright or fell far below expectations.”
― Jim Collins, Turning the Flywheel: A Monograph to Accompany Good to Great

“Create a list of significant replicable successes your enterprise has achieved. This should include new initiatives and offerings that have far exceeded expectations.”
― Jim Collins, Turning the Flywheel: A Monograph to Accompany Good to Great

“It must capture the sequence that ignites and accelerates momentum.”
― Jim Collins, Turning the Flywheel: A Monograph to Accompany Good to Great

“In Built to Last, Jerry Porras and I observed that those who build enduring great companies reject the “Tyranny of the OR” (the view that things must be either A OR B but not both). Instead, they liberate themselves with the “Genius of the AND.” Instead of choosing between A OR B, they figure out a way to have both A AND B. When it comes to the flywheel, you need to fully embrace the Genius of the AND, sustain the flywheel AND renew the flywheel.”
― Jim Collins, Turning the Flywheel: A Monograph to Accompany Good to Great

“But what truly set the big winners apart was their ability to turn initial success into a sustained flywheel, even if they started out behind the pioneers.9”
― Jim Collins, Turning the Flywheel: A Monograph to Accompany Good to Great

“Similarly, across all our rigorous matched-pair research studies (Built to Last, Good to Great, How the Mighty Fall, and Great by Choice), we found no systematic correlation between achieving the highest levels of performance and being first into the game.”
― Jim Collins, Turning the Flywheel: A Monograph to Accompany Good to Great

“A flywheel need not be entirely unique. Two successful organizations can have similar flywheels. What matters most is how well you understand your flywheel and how well you execute on each component over a long series of iterations.”
― Jim Collins, Turning the Flywheel: A Monograph to Accompany Good to Great

“A Hedgehog Concept is a simple, crystalline concept that flows from deeply understanding the intersection of the following three circles: (1) what you’re deeply passionate about, (2) what you can be the best in the world at, and (3) what drives your economic or resource engine.”
― Jim Collins, Turning the Flywheel: A Monograph to Accompany Good to Great

“Leading as a charismatic visionary—a “genius with a thousand helpers” upon whom everything depends—is time telling. Shaping a culture that can thrive far beyond any single leader is clock building. Searching for a single great idea upon which to build success is time telling. Building an organization that can generate many great ideas is clock building. Leaders who build enduring great companies tend to be clock builders, not time tellers. For true clock builders, success comes when the organization proves its greatness not just during one leader’s tenure but also when the next generation of leadership further increases flywheel momentum.”
― Jim Collins, Turning the Flywheel: A Monograph to Accompany Good to Great

“The only legitimate form of discipline is self-discipline, having the inner will to do whatever it takes to create a great outcome, no matter how difficult. 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 create a powerful mixture that correlates with great performance. To build an enduring great organization—whether in the business or social sectors—you need disciplined people who engage in disciplined thought and take disciplined action to produce superior results and make a distinctive impact in the world.”
― Jim Collins, Turning the Flywheel: A Monograph to Accompany Good to Great