“Good-to-great companies became like Dave Scott. They rinsed their cottage cheese.”
I Power Seed:
To keep with the theme of the I Power Ideas site, this will not be an in-depth review but rather selected highlights to pique your interest in the book, read it, and understand the concepts in more detail.
A list of “not to do’s” was more important than a list of “to do’s”.
Good is the enemy of great. People settle when they get good.
Good is not circumstance. Just does not just happen. Has to be consciously made.
Ferociously results driven.
CEOs are humble and gracious and are servant but not weak.
Example of Rubbermaid that went to great but once CEO left they went downhill.
Motivating employees is mostly a waste of time. If you have the right people on the bus, they will be self-motivating. So the real goal is to not de-motivate them.
Want to go from good to great, get the best people on the bus.
Executive compensation had absolutely no impact on company performance. None at all.
Don’t need good employees, need great. Good employees are not your best asset, great employees are.
Great employees do not need any management. They need to be taught and led.
3 circles.
Might be competent but not going to be great at it. Such as might get good math scores on SAT but does not mean you would be a great mathematician.
Hedgehog concept, keep it simple by having a laser focus on a simple concept and ignore everything around it. Walgreens having a cluster concept, 9 stores within a mile of san Francisco. Hedgehog concept was increase revenue per customer per visit.
Example of wife winning iron man.
Technology does not take companies good to great. Look at internet companies that have gone out of business. Walgreens kept to hedgehog concept and surpassed them.
Vietnam we had tons of technology and still lost. North Vietnamese kept to hedgehog concept.
Failures stem from management and leadership failures. Where they are weak. Where is VisiCalc, innovated spreadsheet? Did apple create the pda, no palm pilot did. Did Boeing create the passenger jet, no piper did. Look up rest of them.
5,000 lb. fly wheel. How hard to get it going? Once it goes it moves. Physics, mlm once in motion… asked which turn was pivotal? None, it was an accumulation of all of them.
Key to hedgehog is understanding on how to be the best. Cannot be goal. Have to fully understand what we do and how to be best at it.
I Power Seeds
Here are our takeaways and thoughts - pause and reflect, then nourish and grow!
A few notes about the book:
This is a valuable and classic leadership book with incredible insights and concepts and how to focus on being great.
So go be great!
Enjoy.
