Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Good To Great: A Brief Summary
Good To Great: A Brief Summary
A Brief Summary
Prepared By
Satyam Srivastava
PGP32243
Section E
Gillette
Philip Morris
Walgreens
Wells Fargo
Kimberly- Clark
Abbott
Circuit City
Fannie Mae
Kroger
Nucor
Pitney Brows
Level 5 Leadership
An organisation is steered by the leader. All Good to
Great companies had level 5 Leaders.
These leaders are characterised by two traits :
Professional Will
Personal Humility
Personal Will Demonstrate unwavering resolve to
produce the best results, irrespective of difficulty level.
Personal Humility Demonstrate compelling modesty.
They are never boastful and shy away from public
adulation.
Celebrity CEOs are negatively correlated with making
good company great.
Success is not personal, but defined by something that
will outlast their time.
They take the blame for any failure on themselves and
give credit to others for success of the company.
They always set up their successors for even greater
success in the next generation.
A Culture of Discipline
Great companies have both entrepreneurial spirit and sense of
discipline.
Sustained great results depend upon building a culture full of
self disciplined people who take disciplined action, fanatically
consistent with the 3 circles.
On the one hand people adhere to a consistent system and on
the other, they get freedom and responsibility within the
framework of that system.
A culture of discipline is not just about action. It is about
getting disciplined people who engage I disciplined thought
and who then take disciplined action.
A simple Mantra is : Anything that does not fit with the
Hedgehog concept will not be done.
The fact that something is a once in a lifetime opportunity
is irrelevant if it does not fit within the three circles.
Stop Doing list is more important than To Do list.
Technological Accelerators
Technology is not a differentiator in itself but rather something that
enhances great companies.
The Good-to-Great companies used it to increase leverage, in a conscious,
directed way rather than rushed to embrace it for the sake of its newness.
The key question about any technology is Does it fit with the Hedgehog
concept?
It is an accelerator of momentum, not creator of it.
Great companies react respond to a technological change with
thoughtfulness and creativity, driven by a compulsion to turn unrealized
potential into results whereas mediocre companies react, motivated by the
fear of being left behind.
Technology by itself is never a primary root cause of either greatness or
decline.