A business council is a group of people from different areas of the business who meet regularly. Good to great companies think differently about the role of technology. This single function will become the organizations hedgehog concept. According to from good to great, your hedgehog concept should be what you can be the absolute best at in your chosen area. The concept is drawn from a greek poem in which a cunning fox tries and continually fails to eat a hedgehog who was always able to roll into a ball at the key moment. All good to great gtg companies had a level 5 leader.
This problem is addressed in this small addon good to great and the social sectors, a small read that makes it clear on how nonprofits can still apply good to great values to their own organizations with mission not profit in mind. Core concepts from good to great by jim collins level 5 leadership level 5 leaders embody a paradoxical mix of personal humility and professional will. The hedgehog concept is developed in the book good to great. Some of the key concepts discerned in the study, comments jim collins, fly in the face of our. Some of collins specific examples, like bigbox electronics store circuit city and financial institution fannie mae, are a little datedbut his basic principle remains relevant. A hedgehog concept is a simple concept that flows from deep understanding about the intersection of the following three circles. The hedgehog concept is not a goal, strategy, or intuition.
Not only is it a great read, but there is data to back up all the research. Your company should be here disciplined thought relook your companys denominators to gain understanding of your economic. Jim collins is author or coauthor of six books that have sold in total more than ten million copies worldwide, including the bestsellers good to great, built to last, and how the mighty fall. The concept can help your organization to focus on three. So, even though abbott had focused on pharmaceuticals for its entire existence, ceo george cain decided to move the company into the areas of hospital nutritional products and diagnostic devices, areas with which the company had flirted and in which opportunity was significant. Collins introduces new management concepts, such as level 5 leaders, the hedgehog concept, and the culture of discipline, which are essential to the success of good to great companies. Good to great has to rate in the top five of the many business books i have read and digested in my career. Business researcher and consultant, jim collins, used this concept as a metaphor for business in his influential book, good to great. Let me just preface this post by saying that i hate management books and business theory books and nearly everything that starts with the phrase the seven habits of highly. More precisely, a hedgehog concept is a simple, crystalline concept that flows from deep understanding about the intersection of.
Good to great and the social sectors this monograph sprang from the realization that the good to great concepts have use far beyond business in government, nonprofits, schools, and just about everywhere else. Good to great usa today ran a nice article today on good to great, written by jim collins, and its exploding popularity. The key to going from good to great is to get the right people onboard, engaging in critical thinking, then taking disciplined action aligned with the hedgehog concept. In good to great, collins highlights that it can take around four years for a business to find its hedgehog concept. More precisely, a hedgehog concept is a simple, crystalline concept that flows from deep understanding about the intersection of the following three circles. Order good to great from amazon the original hedgehog concept came from an essay by isaiah berlin in which he talks about leo tolstoys theory of history. I have to catch up on a few days i missed, and publishing one summary per day is my hedgehog concept right now. This book by jim collins is one of the most successful books to be found in the business section of your local megabookstore, and given how it purports to tell you how to take a merely good company and make it great, its not difficult to see why that might be so. Not only is it a great read, but there is data to back up all the research and help the reader draw comparisons between what is a good business and what is a great business. But, finding it means that my work is much more fulfilling and i hope that asking the question might help you find your hedgehog concept as well. Hedgehog concept in the business sectors good to great. Originally published in 2001, good to great compiles five years worth of business analyst jim collins detailed research into why some companies consistently beat stock market averages. Why some companies make the leap and others dont at.
The idea is that hedgehogs are focused and diligent in their activities, unlike foxes that chase shiny objects. Collins also emphasizes that hedgehog concepts can only be created through sustained debate, with most good to great companies taking at least four years to clarify theirs. Jim collins presents many interesting business concepts throughout good to great. The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing. Here are some of the learnings i will be taking away from this book. In 2001, jim collins published his influential book, good to great. Transformations from good to great come about by a series of good decisions made consistently. Jim collins hedgehog concept good to great alan philips. Second, the good to great companies translated that understanding into a simple, crystalline concept that guided all their effortshence the term hedgehog concept. The hedgehog concept by the american business consultant jim collins shows how a company or person can be successful in business. The next principle of good to great companies is the hedgehog concept. Its about the power of simplicity, increasing the chance of success.
The hedgehog concept is a corporate leadership strategy outlined in jim collins 2001 book, good to great. To transition from good to great, companies should focus on doing one thing better than anyone else in the world. In continuing with the current theme of good to great, i would now like to explore the idea that jim collins put forth which he dubbed the hedgehog concept. This single response is simple and works as a response to any attack. Technology is a great ally for success, it is a great friend to advance progress. In good to great, the second part of disciplined thought is the hedgehog concept the simplicity withing the three circles. When confronted by predators, the hedgehog s instinct is to curl up into a protective ball. Core concepts from jim collins good to great faithmaps blog. Well cover the good to great hedgehog concept, hedgehog concept examples, and the questions to ask yourself and your team to find your own hedgehog concept. Good to great businesses find a simple hedgehog concept and pursue it relentlessly. For more than a quarter century, jim has studied what makes great companies tick.
He also brings up the idea of what he calls the council, which is a group of people devoted to working through the three circles in order to find the hedgehog concept. The hedgehog concept was originally based on an ancient greek parable which stated, the fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing. Good to great companies founded their strategies on deep understanding along three key dimensions, and translated this understanding into a simple concept hedgehog concept that guided all of their efforts. Jim collins concepts the hedgehog concept good to great. Good to great book summary 12 key ideas a leader, a hedgehog and a flywheel hedgehog concept level 5 leaders used the hedgehog concept to create an organization that is clear in its purpose and focused on delivering results hedgehog those who built the good to great companies were, to one degree or another, the hedgehogs. The book was a bestseller, selling four million copies and going far beyond the traditional audience of business books. Good to great by jim collins posted on march 8, 2012 by liz stinson some quick notes on some of my main takeaways not necessarily the full set of key points, rather the ones that spoke to me from jim collins great book good to great.
In his 2001 book good to great, collins describes the similarities between large organisations like multinational corporations and the. The monograph rejects the idea that the social sectors should operate more like business and shows how the good to great concepts can be successfully adapted to arenas in which. The thought is that all companies and perhaps people too, in order to achieve greatness that is need a deep understanding of three areas that join together to form one simple concept the hedgehog concept. From jim collins book good to great, the hedgehog concept helps your organization focus on three main areas. To help develop their hedgehog concept many companies use a business council. However after reading the monograph and receiving so many recommendations to read his best seller that inspired it, i finally decided to pick it up. The result is a series of authored and coauthored books, each looking at the question from a different angle, written for leaders in the business and social sectors. Here in one place are the timeless concepts that emerged from more than. The hedgehog principle was introduced by jim collins in his book good to great, in which he argues that truly great companies are oriented around a hedgehog concept. The research conducted for this book is complicated however collins simplifies the process to more clearly explain why some things were included or omitted. Second, the goodtogreat companies translated that understanding into a simple, crystalline concept that guided all their effortshence the term hedgehog concept.
Jim began his research and teaching career on the faculty at stanford graduate school of business, where he received the distinguished teaching award in 1992. Those who launch radical change programs and wrenching restructurings will almost certainly fail to make the leap. For this exact reason, this is my third summary of the day. The hedgehog concept comes for the old greek parable about a hedgehog and a fox which states the following. All concepts summarised in this presentation belong to the author of the book. In the book good to great, jim collins discovers that great companies from his study all had a similar approach to their business, an approach that lead them to greatness. The hedgehog concept from good to great part 1 youtube. A simple, crystalline concept that flows from deep understanding about the intersection of three circles. Good to great is divided into 9 chapters, which represent the key elements of the book.
Overall, good to great is an absolute classic business book and one that we recommend you read. This is how the author sets off a riveting journey explaining the findings from his and his teams half a decade of research in the conquest of how to make good. As i said, im trying to make this website the best book summary website in the world. Collins that describes how companies transition from being good companies to great companies, and how most companies fail to make the transition.
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