Good is the enemy of great...

'Good to Great' Principles (좋은 기업을 넘어... 위대한 기업으로)

1. Level 5 leadership - 단계 5의 리더십

2.First who then what- 사람 먼저... 다음에 할 일 - 먼저 적합한 사람을 버스에 태우고 나서 어디로 갈지를 결정하라

3. Confront the brutal facts - 냉혹한 사실을 직시하라 (그러나 믿음은 잃지 말라)

4. The hedgehog concept - 고슴도치 컨셉 (세 개의 원 안의 단순한 것)

5. A culture of discipline - 규율의 문화

6. Technology accelerators - 기술 가속페달

Source:http://www.read-lead.com/blog

The most helpful favorable amazon REVIEW

- Good to Great + consistent Optimal Thinking = Best,April 20, 2004

This book is a fascinating read! A study taken over five years began with twenty-eight corporations and revealed eleven that had made the leap from Good to Great. From this study, I gained an instant understanding of the role of humility in leadership. The primary ambition of great leaders is focused on the success of their company, not on themselves.

Collins advocates the Hedgehog Concept - a combination of discovering what you can be best in the world at (Optimal Thinking), what you are passionate about, and what drives your economic engine. Collins states that sustained disciplined action is primarily achieved by "fanatical adherence to the Hedgehog Concept and the willingness to shun opportunities that fall outside the three circles." So my question is: How do you identify the best? I recommend Optimal Thinking: How To Be Your Best Self by Dr. Rosalene Glickman as an adjunct to this powerful book to provide the mental resource to identify the best, optimize emotional and financial intelligence and create a corporate culture of optimization. From Good to Greatest to Best!"

The most helpful critical amazon REVIEW

-Is this the best we can do?,August 28, 2003

Good to Great examines the transition from mediocre corporate performance to extraordinary performance. Whilst the research contained within this best-selling book is excellent, I found myself using Optimal Thinking and asking "Is this the best we can do?"

In my industry, companies strive to be their best and are not satisfied with being great. Read Optimal Thinking: How to Be Your Best Self by Dr. Rosalene Glickman if you want to OPTIMIZE the thinking and performance of your people and your company.

My review

Leadership matters. Whoo~A. I know. It does matter. I have long been suffered from leadership deficiency over the history of my life. I had not been the one who protrudes in front of the mass to say Ya. I had not been the one who could hang around with obviously normal elements and people who go with flow. I had been something weird creature disquietingly different even from my current character. I used to love to stay alone in a dusky room flipping a trunk here and there by empowering myself studying alone, training to the limit alone, dining alone and even drinking alone. I had lived with that throughout my life. I am a superb type of whiz kid, sorry to me, when it comes to doing something alone - name it speaking foreign languages, solving engineering problems (even though not better than average POSTECHians..), going beyond the limit of physical energy support or so. But I always felt like, I were lacking what core value I need to attain for the critical tipping point in my life. Which all emerges from a single word,LEADERSHIP.

One thing, I am not a born-to-be-a-leader guy. Actually I am more good at doing something alone. But I know that's not a true way of life I'd love to live. Of course, that's not good for going through with a bundle of brutal facts in reality. Furthermore, being armed with leadership spirit, skill and mind is simply more fun.

In a book GOOD TO GREAT, the author Jim Colins starts by stating about leadership. He articulates, top leadership is not just about HUMILITYandMODESTY. It is equally aboutFEROCIOUS RESOLVE, an almost STOIC DETERMINATION to do whatever needs to be done to make the company great. When putting those four key words into myself, I can notice latter part of two words are breathing in my heart each and every single day. First two words humility and modesty, however, are not in me. They have not been cultivated in me. Sorry to me. But I will.

Keeping the fundamental thoughts and disciplines in mind, I sailed through book - thirty minutes in the subway every morning - and the real life @ IBM with colleagues. During roughly a month of period, I have faced with great deal of juggling and colliding brutal facts when measuring my current leadership which has been raised only eleven months in my life - definitely with so many defects. I couldn't understand why it were so hard to let people be together. Let people to open their mind. Let people have better attitude. Let people stay in respect to each other. And I got more and more assured of a conception that IBM Korea is distressed with a culture where  the truth is not heard. Sometimes, I felt like many people bursting into fake smile when drinking coffee or having a business meeting. So in the middle of that time, a great finding from a Good to Great dawned on me,Creating a climate where the truth is heardinvolves four basic practices: 1. Lead with questions, not answer. 2. Engage in dialogue and debate, not coercion. 3. Conduct autopsies, without blame.4. Build red flag mechanisms that turn information into information that cannot be ignored. Charisma can be as much a liability as an asset, as the strength of your leadership personality can deter people from bringing you the brutal facts. And these words pounded me on my head with a massive brick. Do I lead with questions?NO.Do I engage more in dialogue and debate?NO.Do I conduct autopsies?NO.Do I give opportunity for everyone to talk as cozy and domestic as possible?NO. Oh, then it's time to start from the scratch.

After touching leadership, Jim reveals what this book is published for,Hedgehog concept:1. What you can be the best in the world at. 2. What drives your economic engine. 3. What you are deeply passionate about...Of course, the core point is to first get self-disciplined people who engage in very rigorous thinking - I prefer to add humility and modesty, who then take disciplined action within the framework of a consistent system designed around the Hedgehog Concept. Indeed, discipline by itself will not produce great results. I turn my way back to leadership again..:-)

It has been quite demanding to digest all lesson from this book while reading through page after page. But I wish I could implement all those good to great words in my life as well as in IBM Korea where I am now. And I'd love to recommend this book to those who have interest in business administration and what any other people who want to make a leap in life.

Thank you.

Youngil Ahn,

Key excerpts,

# Packard's Law:No company can grow revenues consistently faster than its ability to get enough of the right people to implement that growth and still become a great company.

#Core valuesare essential for enduring greatness, but it doesn't seem to matter what those core values are.