Good to Great by Jim Collins - Book Report/Review Example

 Introduction The book “Good to Great” written by “Jim Collins” focuses on whether an average company can deal with the increase in competition within the market and how can it can be able to attain a successful position in the industry it operates in. In order to analyze this question the author has classified companies into various levels on the basis of the prevailing opportunities available and how a particular business can shift from its actual position to a higher level. The sustainability of a company and the strategies followed in order to attain a better business positioning has been elaborately discussed in the book. The aim of the book is to identify the companies on the basis of criteria of being publicly traded has along with ensuring an existing tenure of at least 25 years. The author of the book has analyzed eleven companies from the database of fortune 500 companies (Collins, 2011). The capabilities of any individual as a leader have been discussed in the book. An individual makes productive contribution to an organization on the basis of his/her skills, knowledge capabilities and competencies. The team leader plays a crucial role in organizing the employees and motivating them towards executing the work in an effective manner. The performance of individuals not only depends only on the competency level of an individual employee but also how a leader delegates the work among the personnel (Collins, 2011). Critical Analysis The main challenge faced by Collin while writing the book was towards identifying the factors and the conditions that influence or assist a company to shift from a good to great position. A transit from good to great depends on various management related aspects, organizational practices and attitude and behavior of an individual within an organization. The findings of the analysis are presented with the help of evaluation of nine chapters of the book titled “Good to Great” (Collins, 2011). In one of the chapter of this book, the types of leadership have been described as crucial for gaining long –term sustainability for the business. The type of leadership is presented as “Level 5 Hierarchy”, where Collin has used the term ‘Level 5’ that implies highest level of capability possessed by executives of respective companies (Advanced Leadership Consulting, 2004). The leader with high capabilities combines their knowledge with professional skills that further supports in developing a better organization. These leaders are not concerned about themselves and their personal interest; rather they prefer to give their full attention to other employees of the organization so that they can perform well for the overall success of the business. It is the responsibility of mangers to organize and ensure optimum use of the resources of the company. It has been identified by Collin that people, thoughts and actions are the three main factors that determines the potential of an organization to achieve greatness (Collins, 2001). Figure 1: (Source: Collins, 2011) Collin has identified that the nature of leadership team also acts as a crucial element that assist the transit of a company from good to great. For a company it is quite essential to identify individuals with high quality and talent that can further depict level 5 leadership abilities (National Center for Biotechnology Information, 2001). According to the author, recruiting the right people and placing them at a right position can help a company in solving various problems faced by the management. The process of transit from good to great also requires identification of the facts and the current position of the company so that honest decisions can be made to overcome the negative situation (Shaner, n.d.). The book describes the concept of “Hedgehog and Fox” and states that a fox focuses on a number of things at a time while the latter knows one thing only and is completely devoted to it. A fox applies different strategies to catch a hedgehog but fails always just because of the fact that the latter is specialized in one task of defending himself from the fox. People can also be classified on the basis of Hedgehog and Fox theory, where individuals who belong to the fox category would posses many aims and interests while individuals who are focused on one goal at a time can be regarded as Hedgehog (Warwick, 2014). People who are like hedgehog are likely to achieve greater success and compete with their rivals by attaining greater position within the business as compared to others (Collins, 2007). Jim Collins has used the concept of ‘Hedgehog’ in his book “Good to Great”, and stated that the organizations should follow this concept of focusing on one particular mission or target at a time, which can further assist the company in dealing with the increased level of competition in the market and to attain long run success. According to the author an organization can identify the hedgehog concept by analyzing various internal and external business factors. Companies need to identify the core competencies of people within the workplace and the work areas where the application of their competencies can bring more fruitful results. The ‘mission and vision statement’ of the organization should be framed according to the business purpose and should focus on one thing at a time. The internal and external analysis of organization helps to identify the opportunities available and threats facing by the concern so that strategies can be framed accordingly for the overall business operations (Walker, 2008). An organization must have a sound economic engine, which can further be determined from the level of profitability of the unit. The Hedgehog concept is depicted using figure-2 hereunder. Figure 2: (Source: Collins, 2011) Collin also focuses on the concept of organizational culture. In any organization, the culture of discipline should be maintained in such a manner that it can contribute directly towards enhancing the productivity of the individuals within the workplace. This aspect might also influence high quality work within the workplace (Berlin, 2013). Application The concept of confrontation of important facts is further explained by the author with the example of “Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company”. Post World Wars, the A&P Company face challenges as the Americans were demanding variety in products with bigger stores. Therefore in order to understand the changes in the business environment the company had to open big stores where extensive research development were conducted to emerge with new product concept towards meeting the diverse requirements of the customers. The change in the business model was to understand the prevalence of modernization and the changing demands of the customers, which companies must comprehend to attain long term sustainability and competitive advantage to shift from being a good company to a great one indeed (Collins, 2011). With the increase in competition, organizations needs to shift focus from its prevailing business objective to better alternatives to attain, in order to enhance profitability and long term sustainability in a comprehensive manner altogether. The U.S. retailer “Walgreens'” main objective was to become the best drug retailer in the world. The organization’s mission and vision was to ensure the achievement of the predetermined objectives in the long run. However, in order to ensure a high performance level and success, the management of the shifted its focus towards being a profitable unit by meeting the changing demands within the marketplace. The shift in focus of the company was identified as a better strategy towards achieving its vision goals. On the basis of the change in its focus, a considerable number of retail stores were opened by the unit as a result of its increased level of profit margin (Collins, 2011). . Conclusion Form the analysis of the book, various factors has been identified that that can assist an organization in moving from good to a great position. Leadership has been identified as a crucial factor that is essential for the success of any organization. Any individuals with level 5 characteristics are the one with better leadership capabilities and hence can assist other members of team to improve short term and long term business performance. The concept of Hedgehog should be followed by companies to ensure long term sustainability further attaining a greater positioning within the marketplace. References Advanced Leadership Consulting. (2004). How to become a level 5 leader. Retrieved from http://www.leadershipconsulting.com/how-to-become-a-leader-pt1.htm Berlin, I. (2013). The hedgehog and the fox: An essay on Tolstoy’s view of history (second edition). US: Princeton University Press. Collins, J. (2007). The hedgehog concept. Retrieved from http://www.jimcollins.com/lab/hedgehog/p2.html Collins, J. (2011). Good to great: why some companies make the leap...and others don't.UK: Harper Collins. Collins, J. (2011). The hedgehog concept. Retrieved from http://waupaca.uwex.edu/files/2010/05/Good-to-Great-Hedgehog-Concept1.pdf Collins, J. (2001). Level 5 leadership. Retrieved from http://thepeoplegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/article-level-5-leadership1.pdf National Center for Biotechnology Information. (2001). Level 5 leadership. The triumph of humility and fierce resolve. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11189464 Shaner, M. (n.d.). Level 5 Leadership. Retrieved from http://drglanton.wikispaces.com/file/view/Level+Five+Leadership.pdf Warwick, H. (2014). Hedgehog. London: Reaktion Books. Walker. K. (2008). Good to great. Retrieved from http://keithdwalker.ca/wp- content/summaries/d-f/Expanded%20Good%20to%20Great.Collins.EBS.pdf Read More