Good is the enemy of great

“Good is the enemy of great.

And that is one of the key reasons why we have so little that becomes great.

We don’t have great schools, principally because we have good schools. We don’t have great government, principally because we have good government. Few people attain great lives, in large part because it is so just easy to settle for good life. The vast majority of companies never become great, precisely because the vast majority become quite good—and that is the main problem.”

 

Good to Great -- by Jim Collins

These are few lines from the book ‘Good to Great’ by Jim Collins. While reading this book as the college project, I came across a mind-blowing phrase, which just totally shooked my whole way of thinking that, “Good is the enemy of great”. It is just too easy to settle for good, and that’s the main reason or the problem that we have only a few great leaders, schools, companies, personality, and government just because principally we have attained the ‘level’ good in them all. Take it as a book review, or summary or dissection but needed to be done.

 While going through the research phase of the book, one question which always strucked the author’s mind was, ‘Can good company become a great company, and if so how? Or is the disease of ‘just being good’ incurable? As he was performing the research work on ‘good to great companies’, thus his all the questions and queries revolved around the few set of companies.

While performing the research work, the author and his team reached to a conclusion, which later created more confusion. They observed that all the ‘good to great’ companies showed some similar traits irrespective of their market capitalisation, sector in which they deal, or any other differential basis. They called that conclusion as ‘black box’. They referred it as black box because it contained some secret recipe, and whichever company used it as an ingredient in their growth process, showed unexpectedly great results. Now the task was to find that secret recipe, which helped in transformation from ‘good to great’. And after rigorous research and sleepless nights the ‘secret’ was out:

The secret box of 'recipe'

1.       Strategy did not separate the good-to-great companies from the comparison companies. Both set of companies had well defined strategies, and there is no evidence that good to great companies spent more time on long-range strategic planning than the comparison companies.

2.       The good to great companies primarily did not focus on what to do to become great; they focussed equally on what not to do and what to stop doing.

3.       Mergers and acquisitions play virtually no role in igniting the transformation process; two big mediocrities joined together never make one great company.

Along these points he also mentioned, “We were surprised, shocked really, to discover the type of leadership required for turning a good company into a great one. Compared to high-profile leaders with big personalities who make headlines and become celebrities, the good-to-great leaders seem to have come from Mars. Self-effacing, quiet, reserved, even shy-these leaders are a paradoxical blend of personal humility and professional will. They are more like Lincoln and Socrates than Patton or Caesar.

 We expected that good-to-great leaders would begin by setting a new vision and strategy. We found instead that they first got the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people in the right seats-and then they figured out where to drive it. The old adage "People are your most important asset" turns out to be wrong. People are not your most important asset. The right people are.

 All companies have a culture, some companies have discipline, but few companies have a culture of discipline. When you have disciplined people, you don't need hierarchy. When you have disciplined thought, you don't need bureaucracy. When you have disciplined action, you don't need excessive controls. When you combine a culture of discipline with an ethic of entrepreneurship, you get the magical alchemy of great performance.”

These were few mentioned tips by the author for transformation from ‘good to great’. The game here is, he researched and gave tips for good to great companies and you have to apply your own brain cells and use these tips in your life to achieve great and not settle for good.