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Posted April 24, 2009 4:39 a.m. by todd-sattersten
In Strategy - 800 CEO Read Blog
A growing wave of critics is taking shots at Jim Collins and his book, Good to Great, questioning the research and Collins' oft-followed path for corporate success. The arguments against Collins are nicely summarized in a Boston Globe article written by Drake Bennett titled "Luck Inc." Jim Collins is quoted, pushing back on some of the counterclaims to his contribution to "business-success literature." Bennett also gets a quote from Tom Peters, co-author of In Search of Excellence —- which takes its share of hits for similar offenses. (Peters posted two lengthy response on his own blog - part one and part two). Halo Effect author Phil Rosenwieg makes an appearance too, strongly advocating a second look at the validity of these types of books. In sum, I found that the article offers a good history of business books and shows great journalistic work on Bennett's part.
Rather than write a lengthy response here with additional claims, I am going to direct you to Bob Sutton's (whom Drake interviewed for his article) blog post, "A Well-Crafted Critique of Business "Success" Books and My Ambivalence About Good to Great." In typical form, Sutton delivers a response with substance and clarity, having explored this terrain well with Jeffery Pfeffer in Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths and Total Nonsense. One particular point of Sutton's that bears repeating, however, is the irony in that many of the findings that Collins reports are supported by other peer-reviewed research, something Collins fails to use in Good To Great. His theories about "Getting The Right People On The Bus" and "The Hedgehog Concept" might be worthy of pursuit, but given the shortcomings in the research it would be wrong to attribute the importance of thoughtful hiring and strategic focus to Collins' work alone.
The bottom line is this: there is enough evidence now to force us to reconsider Good To Great as the pinnacle management book of this decade. Michael E. Raynor, Mumtaz Ahmed, and Andrew D. Henderson in their recent HBR article say that success studies should be treated like fables and looked at as sources of inspiration, not how-to manuals. Good to Great is directionally correct, but it is hard to see the book as the roadmap for making your company great.
What makes all of this more interesting is the May 19th release of Collins' new book, How the Mighty Fall: And Why Some Companies Never Give In. The book's publisher, HarperCollins, is not releasing any advance copies, but here is the marketing copy for the new effort:
Good to Great and Built to Last identified the distinguishing characteristics shared by companies that not only achieved greatness, but also sustained it. In How the Mighty Fall, Jim Collins considers the "dark side," offering a perspective on how a fall from greatness can happen -- to even the seemingly invincible. Adapting the very methodology that established Good to Great as a landmark, How the Mighty Fall shows that every institution, no matter how great, is vulnerable to decline, but recovery is possible. In some cases, companies emerge stronger -- even after having crashed into the depths of a near-catastrophic fall. Collins presents a framework that will help business leaders and companies identify the "silent creep of impending doom" and swiftly set a correction course. Rigorous in its analysis, surprising in its findings, How the Mighty Fall is an in-depth look at the decline of some of our nation's greatest companies and a useful tool for companies and individuals seeking to avoid such a fate. Themes from How the Mighty Fall:
Whether you prevail or fail, endure or die, depends more on what you do to yourself than on what the world does to you.
An institution can look strong on the outside but already be sick on the inside, dangerously on the cusp of a precipitous fall.
The signature of the truly great versus the merely successful is not the absence of difficulty, but the ability to come back from setbacks, even cataclysmic catastrophes, stronger than before...As long as you never get entirely knocked out of the game, hope always remains.
Jim Collins' extensive interview with Bo Burlingham in the 30th anniversary issue of Inc. Magazine alludes to some of the new material. BusinessWeek is also going to have early coverage of the book according to a sales mediakit.
I find it intriguing that the promotional copy proudly touts the "very methodology" Collins used in creating Good to Great and think instead many will be looking at this book much more closely to see if Collins has corrected some of his research faults.
Freakonomics' Levitt Questioning Good To Great
Posted July 30, 2008 8:48 a.m. by todd-sattersten
In Strategy - 800 CEO Read Blog
Steven Levitt on his Freakonomics blog takes a shot at Good To Great and the recent performance of GTG standouts Fannie Mae, Circuit City, and Wells Fargo. A purchase of either Fannie Mae or Circuit City at the time of the book's publication would have netted you an 80% loss in your investment today. Not so good.
This bring ups the whole question of the author Jim Collins' suggested methodology and whether it's one business leaders should be following. There are plenty of great comments on Levitt's post to go read on this. The same criticisms are leveled against Collins' prior book Built To Last and the classic In Search of Excellence by Tom Peters and Bob Waterman. Nassim Nicholas Taleb's Fooled By Randomness and Phil Rosenwig's The Halo Effect are both cited for their critical views of predictable methodologies.
This has always been my belief: all of these books are directional correct. The principles they describe for success are all worth pursuing. We get a little stuck on the empirical side of the debate. It is true that these authors hang their hats on the research to give their findings legitimacy, but we can't completely dismiss everything they have to say every time a highlighted firm falters.
Five Books from 2007: Wikinomics, Halo Effect, Firing Back, one on Starbucks and a Fable.
Posted Dec. 26, 2007 5:42 a.m. by kate
In Lists - 800 CEO Read Blog
Carol Hymowitz over at the WSJ shared her list of business books for holiday reading (you may need to log in). On it, were these books:
Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything by Don Tapscott and Anthony Williams.
This is what we've all been talking about in the past few years and even more so since the rise of Wikipedia. What's the future of mass collaboration and how is it changing what we do? Here's an introduction to our new wiki-ed world. For more, join Don, Anthony and friends over at their blog.
: : : : :
The Halo Effect ... and the Eight Other Business Delusions That Deceive Managers by Phil Rosenzweig.
One controversial title of the year as Phil debates the merits of many well-known business titles: Good to Great and In Search of Excellence. As Carol explains, "The Halo Effect is for executives who aren't looking for a quick-fix prescription and who understand that winning depends on knowing one's own company and on executing smart decisions well -- with a little
luck mixed in." For the record, Tom Ehrenfeld highly recommends checking it out. And, a link to Phil's blog plus a ChangeThis manifesto Phil wrote.
: : : : : :
The Three Signs of a Miserable Job by Patrick Lencioni.
Here's a good airplane read and another of the Lencioni fables. The three signs of a miserable job: irrelevance, immeasurability, and anonymity. Even if you're not a friend of fables, check out the back portion for the guts of the book.
: : : : :
Firing Back -- How Great Leaders Rebound After Career Disasters by Jeffrey Sonnenfeld and Andrew Ward.
The title is self-explanatory. How do you get back up and revamp your career? By the way, Jeffrey was recently in a Fortune article.
: : : : :
How Starbucks Saved My Life by Michael Gates Gill
This past fall, Michael visited us in Milwaukee. Jon had a chance to interview him. This is Michael's story of how he went from having everything to working at Starbucks -- quite a humbling experience.
Halo Effect Review
Posted May 8, 2007 5:07 a.m. by todd-sattersten
In General Business - 800 CEO Read Blog
I intend on writing my own review of Halo Effect. I think it is very good. If you read business books, you are going want to read this. Rosenweig has a great perspective for determining what is worth listening to.
I sent a copy to Rob at Businesspundit and he has posted a thorough review.
Bad to Worse (Failure - Part One In A Series)
Posted April 19, 2007 6:53 a.m. by todd-sattersten
In General Business - 800 CEO Read Blog
There is no shortage of books written to explain the success of companies. In Search of Excellence and Good to Great are the best known for using this technique. There are not many books that do the opposite—look at why companies failed.
It is worth spending some time on the topic of failure. There are many more companies that fail than succeed. I am sure you have heard the comparison of the companies that were on the Dow Jones Industrials list in 1920 and the fact that General Electric is the only one that remains.
There is one possible constraint to think about. Phil Rosenwieg points out in The Halo Effect, it is hard to distinguish between success and what actually caused the success. There may be similar problems distinguishing failure and its causes. Let's just keep that in mind as we look at a few books that examine the difficulty of keeping businesses going.
This is going to be a series that will run over the next couple of weeks.
