Good to Great

Good to Great backs four of Tom's lessons. Under each of his lessons, what the book says about it, and on which pages.

• Move the people you have before you hire

  Collins warns against firing too soon and recommends moving people to other seats where they might blossom before deciding they are off the bus. p. 66. In the book: Three practical disciplines for rigour, Do you know when you know?.

• Sam Stoffel: rebuild the team, then find the formats

  Collins puts who before what in the same order, with the right team first and the direction worked out second. pp. 49 and 50. In the book: Three practical disciplines for rigour, Do you know when you know?.

• Signals show before numbers, and numbers come at month four

  Collins shows breakthrough arrives after long unseen buildup, such as nine years at Circuit City and fifteen for John Wooden, so early signals matter more than early numbers. pp. 178 and 184. In the book: Buildup and breakthrough (the flywheel), Blue Plans.

• A brand that compounds has a mission and an enemy

  Collins argues the flywheel compounds around a passion and purpose beyond money, with bravado-led growth failing against understanding. pp. 119, 121 and 205. In the book: The Hedgehog Concept (three circles), The Council, Good BHAG test.

Collins and a research team compared eleven companies that made a sustained leap from average to great results with matched companies that did not. The leap came from disciplined people, disciplined thought and disciplined action rather than from visionary celebrity leaders, technology, mergers or pay. Humble but fiercely driven Level 5 leaders got the right people on the bus first. They then faced the brutal facts while keeping faith, found a Hedgehog Concept at the overlap of what they could be best at, what drove their economics and what they were passionate about, and built a culture of discipline around it. Momentum came from turning a flywheel in one consistent direction until breakthrough, where comparison companies lurched through programmes in a doom loop. The book closes by joining the study to Built to Last and arguing that greatness comes from work you care about.

• Who comes before what: get the right people on the bus before choosing the destination, and hire for character over skills (p. 49).
• Level 5 leadership pairs personal humility with fierce professional will, and credit goes out of the window while blame goes in the mirror (p. 43).
• Packard's Law: you cannot grow revenue faster than your ability to find the right people (p. 63).
• Put your best people on your biggest opportunities, never your biggest problems (p. 67).
• Create a climate where the truth is heard: questions, debate, blameless autopsies and red flag mechanisms (p. 83).
• The Stockdale Paradox: faith in the endgame together with the discipline to confront the brutal facts today (p. 95).
• The Hedgehog Concept sits at the overlap of what you can be best in the world at, what drives your economics and what you are passionate about, and core competence is not enough (p. 106).
• Pick one denominator, profit per x, to force insight into your economic engine (p. 114).
• Keep a stop doing list and use budgeting to decide which arenas to fund fully and which to cut (p. 152).
• Technology only accelerates momentum, so apply the Hedgehog filter before adopting any (p. 165).
• There is no miracle moment: push the flywheel in one direction and let results create alignment (p. 189).
• A good BHAG comes from understanding the three circles, a bad one from bravado (p. 213).

The Content Operators launch

The Hedgehog Concept test of best in the world at, economic engine and passion is the clearest tool in the book for defining one offer for the launch, and first who and the flywheel guide how to staff and sequence it.

• What makes a format repeatable, as opposed to a hit that happened once?

  The Hedgehog Concept and the cross-country team's single idea show how one simple concept applied with fanatical consistency produces repeatable results (pp. 102, 217).

• What is the smallest team that can produce at the volume I am used to?

  Packard's Law caps growth at the supply of right people, and Nucor ran a $3.5 billion company from a headquarters of fewer than twenty-five people with four layers of management (pp. 63, 149).

Tom builds and runs content teams inside creator and founder businesses, as a fractional Head of Content. Fractional Head of Content, UK