Great by Choice

Great by Choice – Jim Collins

Why do some companies thrive in uncertain, even chaotic, times while others do not? In Great by Choice: Uncertainty, Chaos, and Luck, Why Some Thrive Despite Them All, Jim Collins, author of the bestselling Good to Great, teams up with Morten T. Hansen to answer this question.

Based on a nine-year research project, the book compares companies that achieved exceptional results over long periods in turbulent industries with similar companies that did not. Collins and Hansen call the leaders of the successful companies 10Xers, because their companies outperformed their industries by at least ten times.

The authors identify the behaviors that distinguish these leaders. They practice fanatic discipline, maintaining consistent performance in good times and bad, illustrated by the idea of the 20 Mile March. They show empirical creativity, testing ideas with small experiments, firing bullets before firing cannonballs. And they display productive paranoia, preparing for disaster and building buffers against shocks. The authors also introduce the concept of a SMaC recipe, a set of durable operating practices, and examine the role of luck, arguing that what matters most is the return on luck.

The research is illustrated with engaging stories, including the contrasting fates of polar explorers Roald Amundsen and Robert Falcon Scott, and of companies such as Southwest Airlines, Intel and Microsoft.

Rigorous yet engaging, Great by Choice is an essential read for leaders, entrepreneurs and managers navigating uncertainty.