Built To Last , the defining management study of the nineties, showed how great companies triumph over time and how long-term sustained performance can be engineered into the DNA of an enterprise from the very beginning.  But what about companies that are not born with great DNA? How can good companies, mediocre companies, even bad companies achieve enduring greatness? Are there those that convert long-term mediocrity or worse into long-term superiority? If so, what are the distinguishing characteristics that cause a company to go from good to great? Over five years, Jim Collins and his research team have analyzed the histories of 28 companies, discovering why some companies make the leap and others don't. The findings include: Level 5 Leadership: A surprising style, required for greatness. - The Hedgehog Concept: Finding your three circles, to transcend the curse of competence. - A Culture of Discipline: The alchemy of great results. - Technology Accelerators: How good-to-great companies think differently about technology. - The Flywheel and the Doom Loop: Why those who do frequent restructuring fail to make the leap. Built To Last , the defining management study of the nineties, showed how great companies triumph over time and how long-term sustained performance can be engineered into the DNA of an enterprise from the very beginning.  But what about companies that are not born with great DNA? How can good companies, mediocre companies, even bad companies achieve enduring greatness? Are there those that convert long-term mediocrity or worse into long-term superiority? If so, what are the distinguishing characteristics that cause a company to go from good to great? Over five years, Jim Collins and his research team have analyzed the histories of 28 companies, discovering why some companies make the leap and others don't. The findings include: Level 5 Leadership: A surprising style, required for greatness. - The Hedgehog Concept: Finding your three circles, to transcend the curse of competence. - A Culture of Discipline: The alchemy of great results. - Technology Accelerators: How good-to-great companies think differently about technology. - The Flywheel and the Doom Loop: Why those who do frequent restructuring fail to make the leap. Jim Collins has published multiple international bestsellers that have sold in total more than 11 million copies worldwide, including the perennial favorite Good to Great . His writings and teachings are based on extensive research projects designed to uncover timeless principles of human endeavor and have had a lasting impact across all sectors of society. All of Jim’s books share a common thread: the study of people and how they navigate the big questions of leadership and life.   Good to Great CD Why Some Companies Make the Leap...and Other's Don't By James C. Collins HarperAudio Copyright ©2005 James C. Collins All right reserved. ISBN: 9780060794415 Chapter One Good is the Enemy of Great > That's what makes death so hard - unsatisfied curiosity. -Beryl Markham West with the Night 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 just so easy to settle for a good life. The vast majority of companies never become great, precisely because the vast majority become quite good - and that is their main problem. This point became piercingly clear to me in 1996, when I was having dinner with a group of thought leaders gathered for a discussion about organizational performance. Bill Meehan, the managing director of the San Francisco office of McKinsey & Company, leaned over and casually confided, "You know, Jim, we love Built to Last around here. You and your coauthor did a very fine job on the research and writing. Unfortunately, it's useless." Curious, I asked him to explain. "The companies you wrote about were, for the most part, always great," he said. "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. But what about the vast majority of companies that wake up partway through life and realize that they're good, but not great?"companies, for the most part, have always been great. And the vast I now realize that Meehan was exaggerating for effect with his "useless" comment, but his essential observation was correct - that truly great majority of good companies remain just that - good, but not great. Indeed, Meehan's comment proved to be an invaluable gift, as it planted the seed of a question that became the basis of this entire book -namely, Can a good company become a great company and, if so, how? Or is the disease of "just being good" incurable? Five years a