Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make The
Great Leap...Ands Others Don't
by Jim Collins.
Summarized by Bukola Odedeyi and voiced by
Uyoh Uyoh
When I was running my first company which
was a Computer Repairs outfit, I knew I was
up against a huge myriad of competitors.
There were a lot of good and not so good companies
doing the same thing.
And there is a well known Computer Village
close by.
So I decided to pick on a factor that could
give us a big edge – speed in responding
to the clients’ call.
I even went as far as including it in our
promotions and adverts:
IF WE ARE NOT THERE IN 30 MINUTES, WE’LL
DO IT FREE!
Call started rolling in, prospects who want
to take us up on our word.
This was our Hedgehog concept, and by pursuing
it relentlessly we outperformed even bigger
companies to become the most desirable in
the market..
The first lesson in the Good to Great;
Good to Great businesses Find a simple “Hedgehog
concept” and pursue it relentlessly.
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Let’s move to the second lesson.
The advent of technology has done a lot in
our world.
My father was a Master Printer (think of a
Chartered Accountant today) in the days of
his youth.
He has a fully equipped printing press.
From the Adana letter press printer, 201 printing
machine, a camera, exposing chamber for films
and plates, he even had a drawing board with
an exotic T-Square.
He was a Master Printer!
He actually went to Belgium then to do a major
purchase of new set of machineries.
What this means is that if he gets a contract
to print a book, his press handles the typesetting,
page layout design, shooting the film, exposing
the plate, the printing and the finishing,
from start to finish.
Then came the advent of computer.
Without the help of all these heavy duty machinery,
you can create amazing designs and book layouts
on the computer within a record time.
Daddy thought the trend will just pass away
with time.
He did not embrace the computer technology.
And it was just a matter of time, his printing
business went under
The second major lesson in the Good to Great
is;
Technology is a great ally for success, it
is a great friend to advance progress.
Good to great companies adapt to new trends.
While in the university, a friend started
a business, a bead making business which started
on a poor note.
She was close to despair as she had invested
a lot into the business.
Then she struck gold.
She met a high society girl that loved beautiful
things.
She introduced her business and offered her
a percentage if she would be her partner.
In just six months, my friend's business was
booming.
Her partner had brought in a lot of customers.
These people could afford to patronize her
and kept referring her to others like themselves.
In business, giving the right people a chance
matters a lot.
Hiring qualified people to do the job drives
a company to success.
The third lesson Good to Great,
Make the right contacts and connections, put
the right people in the right place.
Never hire with emotions.
BBC aired a news sometimes back about a British
Government representative to the parliament
whose major duty was to provide answers to
the questions of the Royal family.
This representative was late to the chambers
for about 15 minutes on a particular day.
When he came, he asked for permission to offer
an apology.
Said he:
I offer my sincere apologies to Baroness Lister
for my discourtesy of not being in my place
to answer her question in a very important
matter at the beginning of questions.
During the five years which it has been my
privilege to answer questions from this dispatch
box on behalf of the government, I have always
believed we should rise to the highest possible
standards of courtesy and respect in responding
on behalf of government to the legitimate
questions of the legislature.
I am thoroughly ashamed of not being in my
place and therefore, I shall be offering my
resignation to the Prime Minister with immediate
effect.
I do apologies
The whole house was taken aback.
They believed that the government representative
was being too harsh on himself.
They stretch forth their hand to reach out
to him.
But that is what Good to Great companies do.
And that is the fourth major lesson in the
Good to Great;
Good to great companies never make excuses
for failure, they would investigate and find
out reasons for failure.
The leaders are also disciplined and so show
good examples to other employees.
Dave Scott was a triathlete.
Back in the 198s, Dave Scott earned the nickname,
The Man, for his intense training regimens
and his unrelenting race performances that
created a number of wins - a record six wins
at the IronMan World Championships in 1980,
1982, 1983, 1984, 1986, and 1987.
He will bike 75 miles,
Run 17 miles
And swim 12 miles every single day.
It was a grueling regime.
Despite this, he still had the self-discipline
to rinse his daily meal of cottage cheese
before eating it to minimize his fat consumption.
Good-to-great companies were filled with people
with the same level of diligence and intensity
as Dave Scott, working toward the simple strategy
which their company was following.
The fifth lesson we could learn from the book,
Good to Great is;
Good to great companies follow culture of
rigorous self-discipline and adhere to the
simple Hedgehog concept
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