You might remember Jim Collins and his team of researchers from his previous business work "Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies". In Built to Last, Jim Collins identified eighteen visionary companies and defined what made them great. To get on the list, a company had to be world famous, have a stellar brand image, and be at least 50 years old. You will recognize their names - Disney, Wal-mart, Merck. Jim Collins, the author, started thinking about good to great in 1996 during a working dinner with thought leaders discussing organizational performance. "The companies you write about were, for the most part, always great. They never had to turn themselves from good companies into great companies. They had parents like David Packard and George Merck, who shaped the character of greatness from early on." These thoughts, expressed by Bill Meehan, with McKinsey & Company, were the genesis of Jim Collin's latest book "Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap … and Others Don't".

"Good," Jim Collins says, "is the enemy of great." It is so easy to settle for good we don't strive for great. Some companies, though, have beaten the odds and transitioned themselves from good to great. With the help of a research team, Jim Collins spent five years researching good to great by comparing companies that made the leap from good results to great results and sustained those results for at least fifteen years against a control group of comparison companies. Comparison companies defined as those in the 'same industry as the good-to-great companies with the same opportunities and similar resources at the time of transition, but that showed no leap from good to great'. For example, Kimberly-Clark (a good-to-great company) was compared to Scott Paper. The result of this analysis was a framework of concepts shared by Jim Collins in the book. These concepts are Level 5 Leadership; First Who … Then What; Confront the Brutal Facts (Yet Never Lose Faith); The Hedgehog Concept (Simplicity with Three Circles); A Culture of Discipline; Technology Accelerators; The Fly Wheel and the Doom Loop; and finally, Built to Last.

You might not be surprised to learn that a good-to-great transition does not happen with the most charismatic or flamboyant leader or even the latest technology. Good-to-great happens with a humble, yet dedicated leader who listens to others ideas. This "level 5" executive brings the right people on board before embarking on a new strategy. This strategy or "hedgehog concept" is described as simplicity with the three circles. The hedgehog concept, explains Jim Collins, is a simple, crystalline concept that flows from a deep understanding about the intersection of the following three circles: what you can be the best in the world at, what drives your economic engine and what you are deeply passionate about. Further, technology, when used right, accelerates the company's momentum; it is not a creator of momentum. Finally, the company reaches the "tipping point" where the momentum has built up and the company endures with great results.