How to Become a Great Company

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Recommended: Self reflection of leadership

In the book "Good to Great" Jim Collins identified eleven companies each of them having average returns for fifteen years, followed by the phase of transition and gains of three times the market trend. The author tried to separate and document some of the management philosophies which can be fundamental in affecting such accomplishments. There is a small minority of the companies in the United States that have managed to face the negative growth and turn it into exceptionally positive growth. The evolution from "good to great" is not the matter of a single day, but requires a long transitional period of the change. Jim Collins in "Good to Great" provides many very useful tips on how to reach the success in business and accomplish long term goals for development and growth.

Collins states that the most critical factor in the development of the company from being "good" into "great" one is to implement strategy of Level 5 leader. According to the book, such individual needs to be able to skilfully integrate critical factors and create the path for success . Ideal Level 5 leader must be able to unite traditional quiet humility with the deference to the greater well-being of the company in place of the personal benefits. This leader can inspire every single member of the company to achieve own personal level of "greatness."

This idea about Level 5 leader is proven to be true in real life. It is not a secret that company become great if the leader is great. He is the one who sets the path for development and he is the one all employee want to be like. Leader's personal desire for success not of him only but of the company as a business unit will lead to the similar attitude of employees who will strive to become gre...

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...f who they are and what they can do. More important, "great" companies are relentless in their pursuit of not short term growth but continuous improvement. They never stop practicing the principles and ideas that made them "great" in the first place.

Introspection of leadership skills can make a "better" manager out of the "good" one, but can never create "great" one. Collins in his book "Good to Great" argues otherwise, however, the reality shows that the individual cannot learn all the skills and dedication of the Level 5 manager to become the perfect leader. The inner drive, humility and ability to choose the best path at each stage of company development are essential for the Level 5 manager. Nevertheless, these traits develop during life-long accomplishments and cannot be summoned from reading the book, even such great one as "Good to Great" by Collins.

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