“The kind of commitment I find among the best performers across virtually every field is a single-minded passion for what they do, an unwavering desire for excellence in the way they think and the way they work. Genuine confidence is what launches you out of bed in the morning, and through your day with a spring in your step.”
- Jim Collins-
My first few years out of undergraduate found me pouring through all sorts of business books — from Peter Drucker to Machiavelli to Tom Peters. I devoured them. But over time, I fell off the business book bandwagon and began reading mostly for pleasure again.
Ten years later I went back to school for a Masters and started devouring business books again. I think I was really searching for some answer to either working for a great company, helping transform a mediocre company to a great one, or building a great business up from scratch. But again, after a few years, I went back to reading for pleasure & found the business books to be very repetitious and although filled with great anecdotal material, nothing really turned the lightbulb on for me. Eventually, in 1997, while working at Robert Mondavi (a truly great company by the way), I struck upon the idea for my own winery Humanitas, and it feels right – I believe I am building my own great company – which oddly enough is prompting me to read more business books and study companies I find admirable & successful. Clearly Paul Newman’s Own falls in this category for Humanitas.
A couple of years ago, on the recommendation of a friend, I ventured back into the business book world. The book, Built to Last by Jim Collins turned out to be fascinating, insightful & inspiring. And nowadays I spend a great deal of time in my car, so I picked up the next Jim Collins book, Good to Great, on CD and listened to the author himself read the book. Of the what, hundreds of these business books I’ve read, none have engaged me as much as these have. And apparently, they have inspired several friends as well as I’ve discovered that some of my most respectable ‘business’ friends are also using Collins as a bit of a guru as well.
The sub-title of “Built to Last” is “Successful Habits of Visionary Companies”. Collins does a great job, I think, talking about the discipline of vision. Enduring successful companies, he says, have a clear mission and he builds the book around the seven timeless principles of visionary companies (which I will not outline here!).
In Good to Great, Collins aims to describe how companies transition from being average companies to great companies and how companies can fail to make the transition. Turns out, after the first book, he took a lot of heat because it seemed like companies were either one or the other…great or not great…and a company could make the transition. As a result, Good to Great was born.
If you have a little time on your hands, grab a glass of wine, put on the ear buds, and watch Jim Collins on the Charlie Rose show. And take notes — there is some great stuff in this. Or for a quick Collins fix from a very recent article, read this CNN Money on-line article. Or check out this Fast Company on-line (and don’t forget to read the comments).
As Collins says, “Greatness is not a function of circumstance. Greatness, it turns out, is largely a matter of conscious choice, and discipline.” Words to live by I think. Enjoy the books pour yourself some ‘reading glasses’ of wine!
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