Good to Great
by Collins, James C., Jim Collins · first published 2001
43% recommend41% neutral16% critical
Why HN recommends it
Research-based look at why some companies leap from good to great, covering things like facing brutal facts, a single profit metric, and the flywheel. Suits founders, new CEOs, and engineers moving into leadership.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Answers to commonly asked questions about how good-to-great principles can help social sector organizations make the leap to greatness, using interviews with over 100 social sector leaders.
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It is the ten traits that came to me on a 15 minute subway ride Are you serious? Sounds like that post is a lot of BS to get attention. Better go read a good book based on actual _research_ like "Good to Great" or "Built to Last", both by Jim Collins.
on “Characteristics of Great Companies” ↗…I joined this forum). - Tim Ferris's "Four Hour Work Week" (has to be taken with a gigantic grain of salt, but has many very helpful and practical tips and ideas.) - "Mastery" by George Leonard - "Good to Great" by Jim Collins And finally (and I don't want to turn this into a political flamewar, "grain of salt" applies here as well, etc, etc) but the book that had the most influence on me was "Atlas Shrugged"…
on “Can Entrepreneurs be Made?” ↗Have a look at Good to Great[0]. It's basically breaking down the qualities that make for the best CEO's, and the results are as research based as they could get, and also deliver some interesting conclusions. [0] http://www.amazon.co.uk/Good-To-Great-Jim-Collins/dp/0712676...
on “Yahoo spends $58 million to fire its chief operating officer” ↗…present no evidence as to whether the success was caused by or in spite of their actions. One business book that actually applied hard data analysis to look for causality across multiple companies is "Good to Great" by Jim Collins. https://www.harpercollins.com/9780066620992/good-to-great
on “Nasty Gal is expected to file for bankruptcy” ↗…and set up controls, but don't allow decision paralysis. Good luck with your project, keep your head up, and expect failure. Great employees are rare, so just keep at it. post mobile edit: Go read: Good To Great: https://www.amazon.com/Good-Great-Some-Companies-Others/dp/0... How to Win Friends and Influence People: https://www.amazon.com/How-win-friends-influence-people-eboo... Emotional Intelligence: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000JMKVCG/
on “Ask HN: Have you ever regretted hiring a developer?” ↗…reality of the world we live in is that you occasionally need to raise money. So you need to somehow resolve this conflict which I leave as an exercise for the reader. Recommended reading: Jim Collins - Good to Great. Recommended viewing: Boiler Room
on “Traction Trumps Everything” ↗Let's see.. heres a few I'd recommend.... Good to Great by Jim Collins One Minute Manager by Ken Blanchard First, Break All The Rules by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey In Search of Excellence by Tom…
on “Ask HN: If you could recommend only three management books...” ↗…Take your time and look for people that share your vision and passion. These people are out there it just takes time. And remember, no one can do it by themselves. If you never read it, by a copy of Good To Great (http://www.amazon.com/Good-Great-Companies-Leap-Others/dp/00...). There's a whole chapter devoted to how great companies need great entourages.
on “Why I'll be a solo founder next time” ↗…- Lies My Teacher Told Me, James Loewen - The Four Agreements, Miguel Ruiz - Man's Search For Meaning, Viktor Frankl - Understanding Power, Noam Chomsky - The New Jim Crow, Michelle Alexander - Good To Great, Jim Collins - Abundance, Peter Diamandis - The Mystery Of Capital, Hernando De Soto - Pathologies Of Power, Paul Farmer - Metaphors We Live By, George Lakoff - Seeing Like A State, James Scott -…
on “Ask HN: book suggestions in non-tech fields (e.g. psychology, philosophy…)” ↗…when I moved from development to product & Marketing 1. Follow people in the same field 2. Ready up on blogs and posts : I use Zite, Flipboard and medium 3. A book that helped me to a large extent is Good to great by Jim Collins (http://www.amazon.com/Good-Great-Companies-Leap-Others/dp/00...) Also The Personal MBA by Josh Kaufman http://www.amazon.com/Personal-MBA-World-Class-Business-Educ... 4. Video from people…
on “Ask HN: Dev promoted to more strategic role in startup. What literature?” ↗There were other efforts involved. Actually, if you're curious, there's some good analysis of Southwest Airlines' success in a book I read recently: "From Good To Great" by Jim Collins
on “The Man Who Saved Southwest Airlines with a '10-Minute' Idea” ↗…leaders have too little courage and too much ego to be able to do this effectively. If you'd like insight into how important having the right leader can be then I'd recommend starting by reading the book Good to Great by Jim Collins or at least the chapters on leadership.
on “How Bezos built his data machine” ↗Jim Collins ...the guy that wrote Good to Great, 300 pages of survivorship bias fallacy. I'll pass, thanks.
on “Asymmetric Opportunities and the Cult of Optionality” ↗If I remember correctly according to Jim Collins (author of the classic From Good To Great), there is no such thing as a first mover advantage. They looked at lateral data. I will try to find the quote. EDIT: found it in “Beyond Entrepreneurship 2.0”, great book btw. Highly recommended >…
on “Your idea is brilliant, your idea is worthless (2016)” ↗…new and a few of them are older, but these and several others are books I have read this year and have found them very enjoyable. I will also put out there if you like business an honorable mention of "Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't" which also was a pretty good read about how some businesses have done well and beaten the market while other industry giants have not. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52098718-why-we-re-polar...…
on “Ask HN: What are your favorite books/courses of 2022? Why?” ↗