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I can't believe I went all my life without Jim Collins
Per the recommendation of John Richards I started reading Good to Great by Jim Collins. Wow. What a book! It's filled with 5 years (over 11 man years of research). 11 man-years sounds a little funny. But to explain, if you had 2 people work 40 hours that'd be 80 man-hours. So 11 man-years is a lot of research. I'm sure 90% of you didn't need that explanation but what the hey -- I guess I'm a teacher at heart.
The book examines the question of what made great companies great. After studying a handful of companies that beat the market by at least 3.5 times after having more than 15 down-years (in other words, a very nice turnaround from good to great, thus the title), they provide a list of insights into what made the companies great. To me, the most surprising part of the book was that each of the great companies were led by humble, non-charismatic, somewhat shy and even awkward, CEO's. Not one of them was led by the "down from the mountain save-the-day CEO" that Hollywood and the papers like to write stories about. The book's great, I highly recommend it. For a little taste of Collin's work, go here.
