Leadership Hall Of Fame: Jim Collins, Author Of "Good To Great" What was the impetus for you to write Good to Great?
Well, it all began with a stroke of good luck. In the opening pages of the book I tell the story of a fateful dinner with a friend and former McKinsey colleague Bill Meehan. Bill quipped that studying great companies is really kind of useless, because they usually had superb parenting under their early leaders, which simply gave them a great start in life. This sparked a question: what about all the average companies that didn't have great parenting? Can a good company become a great company? How To Create A Business Where The Truth Is Heard. Now, you might be wondering, "How do you motivate people with brutal facts?
Doesn't motivation flow chiefly from a compelling vision? " The answer, surprisingly, is "No. " Not because vision is unimportant, but because expending energy trying to motivate people is largely a waste of time. One of the dominant themes that runs throughout this book is that if you successfully implement its findings, you will not need to spend time and energy "motivating" people.