Nothing great about Collins’ Good to Great. Or good for that matter.
Instead of good to great, Collins somehow made the leap from mediocre to shite from his OG Built to last to the prequel Good to Grate. Yeah, I’m not a fan of business books. But I do read them lest I find a gem of info here or two which might be useful, as they sometimes are. I do believe that the majority of business books can be reduced from a 300 page mush to a few 2 minute reads in Medium. But where’s the money in that? Unfortunately, there are no gems of knowledge in these pages, only grating sandstones.
I do feel like Good to Great is much of the same message that’s been spewed out in Built to Last. It is a book that can probably be read in a day, but I think it took me about 3 or 4 because I compare it to listening to New Jeans’s Supershy for 10 hours straight. Yeah, I fuken hate that song. Somehow Built to Last was better, and that’s not saying much.
We can poke holes on Collins’s team methodology, which push their message for any resemblance of correlation. To be honest, their research method may be flawed but there are patterns here — differences in stock prices between comparison companies, numbers against industry standards, etc. Whether these numbers actually tell another tale, I won’t be able to say. As a passing reader who just wanted to get the book out of my TBR, the numbers look fine from a surface level.
It is a biased work, which might have undermined the comparison companies, and put the “great” companies on pedestals which may be too high for their own good. For example, Collins often praises Fannie Mae for being a forward thinker in mortgage innovation, particularly opening this product to those who may not be able to afford mortgages. HOW’S THAT GOING FOR YA? These biases are strewn out all over the book, as if Collins know those running these companies in person. Oh wait.
But the biggest criticism that I have of this book is in its utility. Will these ideas fly for different industries? It is the same issue that I had with Built to Last where the successful companies in question may have been successful due to a host of other factors, such as being in the right place at the right time. But this is subjective, as all business books are. We can argue about the utility of business books til kingdom come, and we still won’t get anywhere. But if these books have helped you, then power to you. I’m by nature skeptical and put off by know-them-alls.
Not to say that I don’t agree with some of the principles. I think that it is key that companies hire correctly and have the right people on board. In the hedgehog rule, where Collins advise companies to focus on the one thing, sure I can’t bloody agree more. But these are common sense principles that your dad can tell you about if you only pick up the phone.
Is this book going to take your business from good to great (or bad to okay at least)? Like any business seminars run by a guy with too much grease on his hair and a fake Gucci watch, there’s no guarantees. It is largely up to you. If some of the messages in this book may be resonant to you and come as revelations, then great. Otherwise, I’d argue that you’d be better off reading the financial review or any reading related to your industry instead of this.
