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Good to Great CD: Why Some Companies Make the Leap...And Others Don't | 
 enlarge | Creator: Jim Collins
Publisher: HarperAudio
Category: Book
List Price: $29.95
Buy New: $12.00
You Save: $17.95 (60%)
New (31) Used (13) Collectible (1) from $12.00
Rating:  702 reviews
Sales Rank: 42414
Format: Abridged, Audiobook
Media: Audio CD
Edition: Abridged
Pages: 6
Number Of Items: 5
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 5.7 x 5.1 x 0.7
ISBN: 0694526088
Dewey Decimal Number: 658
EAN: 9780694526086
ASIN: 0694526088
Publication Date: October 1, 2001
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: In shrinkwrap
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Amazon.com Review
Five years ago, Jim Collins asked the question, "Can a good company become a great company and if so, how?" In Good to Great Collins, the author of Built to Last, concludes that it is possible, but finds there are no silver bullets. Collins and his team of researchers began their quest by sorting through a list of 1,435 companies, looking for those that made substantial improvements in their performance over time. They finally settled on 11--including Fannie Mae, Gillette, Walgreens, and Wells Fargo--and discovered common traits that challenged many of the conventional notions of corporate success. Making the transition from good to great doesn't require a high-profile CEO, the latest technology, innovative change management, or even a fine-tuned business strategy. At the heart of those rare and truly great companies was a corporate culture that rigorously found and promoted disciplined people to think and act in a disciplined manner. Peppered with dozens of stories and examples from the great and not so great, the book offers a well-reasoned road map to excellence that any organization would do well to consider. Like Built to Last, Good to Great is one of those books that managers and CEOs will be reading and rereading for years to come. --Harry C. Edwards
Product Description
Destined to be the business publishing event of the year, or even the decade, this is the long awaited new book by the co–author of Built To Last. In it, Jim Collins shares his latest long–term research – and shows how even mediocre companies can become long–term world beaters. Jim Collins has become a best–selling classic business author, with 590,000 copies sold to date, and has been translated into 17 languages.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 697 more reviews...
 Good to Great October 1, 2008
C. Annang
This book is easy and interesting reading. Not only is it required text for my class, but the Vice President of the company that I work for actually told me to read it. Imagine her surprise when I informed her that it was required reading for my masters in social work class.
Good to Great review September 29, 2008
D. Nova (Seattle, WA)
Great practical ideas. How refreshing it is to see a passionate individual pursue an idea to completion and take the time to fully investigate all possibilities.
It's been a great addition to my book club at work.
 Worth for its price September 24, 2008
Dilum Bandara (USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I don't need much to write here as hundreds of people has written review for this book.
In simple terms the book is easy to read & understand. Analyze how best companies manage to retain their position by innovative & intelligent leadership. Research is sound & findings are really interesting. This book would be useful for any leader (or follower) even if they are not into financial sector.
The concept of "Good is the enemy of Great" struck me the most
Definitely worth for its price.
 Mediocre at best September 19, 2008
Lothario (Earth)
After many years of ignoring the hype about this book (it admittedly has a great name) I buckled and read it. It was o.k. I did find some useful facts and anecdotes in it but for the most part it reminded me of esoteric research papers that I was forced to read in med school and residency -- crammed with #'s and statistics and graphs, but relatively little in the way of real-life applicable insights. Worth a quick perusal. The books by Trout and Ries are much better.
 Master bamboozler September 12, 2008
Queen_Anne_Drizzle (Seattle, WA)
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
I did not finish this book. Many may argue reviewers should not review books that they have not read entirely, but I think it would ultimately benefit potential readers if even those who started books reviewed them. Maybe then Amazon book reviews would not be so skewed to 5-star reviews. Now on to why I did not like this book.
As a former management consultant, I appreciated the techniques the author used to make what he was saying sound important such as using fancy charts and graphs and writing in business lingo with little substance. The author also sets the stage by self-aggrandizing. In the first page he ruminates about how much someone would have to pay him in order not to publish the book. Apparently even 100 million dollars would not stop him from publishing his work. Now if this were a truly amazing book and research, why not let the readers decide instead of telling them how great it is going to be? Mr. Collins is smart, however. He knows self-aggrandizing works. Human beings fall for those pretensions all the time. Sales people use those strategies all the time. I don't believe that the author is trying to deceive readers and I am sure he genuinely believes his own material. "The first principle is that you must not fool yourself - and you are the easiest person to fool." (quote by physicist, Richard Phillips Feynman).
Collins looks at 11 companies that have achieved success and tries to explain what drove them to that success. This is a meaningless exercise. Every situation is unique and more importantly it has little application to the real world. If it did, then why hasn't he been able to predict the future successful companies and become rich by investing in them? If you are not convinced by my review, consider this: one of those "good to great" companies that is studied in the book is Fannie Mae. Enough said!
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