Good or Great?
We know that your scarcest resource is TIME, but we also know that you want to LEARN and develop as a professional at the same time. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have been here, right?
To accommodate your needs, we give away BOOK SUMMARIES in the form of easy-to-read Mindmaps of well-known Leadership Books.
This week, we are offering you a book summary of one of the all-time bestselling business book – ‘From Good to Great’ by Jim Collins.
One of the key insights of Collins’ extensive research of good to ‘great’ companies is his “Hedgehog Concept” which is really close to the theme of our TopMind training, i.e. ‘Keep your Eyes on the Ball’.
What is the hedgehog concept? It’s based on the story of a duel between a fox and a hedgehog. The fox wants to catch the hedgehog. It’s an intelligent and agile animal that’s capable of attacking in several ways. The Hedgehog, however, isn’t recognized for its cleverness but it knows how to do one thing extremely well! Its only strategy is to become a ball of thorns and roll as fast as possible. Regardless of the fox’s attack, the hedgehog always wins and manages to escape.
Good-to-great companies all found their own simple hedgehog concept. You can determine your own by asking three essential questions:
(1) “What can we be best in the world at?” You need to establish something that you can do best and make it the focus of your business.
(2) “What can we be passionate about?” Your company must be driven by passion above all. Without it, companies become stagnant and do not get very far.
(3) “How to capture more value from their market & profit the most?” After establishing your focus and passion, all there’s left to do is generate revenue.
Companies that are not made to win tend to act more like the fox. They do many things but lack consistency.
Only a select number of companies achieve success, moreover, an even smaller number will remain in a state of excellence. Why? Because they always follow the principles of the Hedgehog concept. No matter how much the economy and the market change, these methods can be applied to achieve and maintain excellence. It’s a very flexible concept that will allow you to redefine your goals over time. Following this requires discipline. You shouldn’t be swayed by extraordinary shifts in the business. Instead, always go back to the Hedgehog Principle for a fresh start.
A transition from good to great company involves a discipline that could either make or break it. Keep in mind that your vision for a consistent and excellent company will not happen through your passion and hard work alone. It’s a gradual and delicate process that involves creating a disciplined work culture, hiring the right people, and sticking to an effective and duly proven principle like the Hedgehog Method. If you’re a leader striving for excellence, how do you keep track of your progress?
We at TopMind have created this Visual Mind Map of “Good to Great” by Jim Collins to guide you in achieving your goals.
Access your own Visual Mind Map here!
And if you want to have the A3 poster version download the PDF here:
And if you want to have the Executive Summary download the PDF here:
I’m here for you!
AJ
