6009N: Good to Great Study Guide

The study guide is provided to guide you through the course material in a step by step format.

Reading assignments are for the book “Good to Great”  byJim Collins.

1) Good is the enemy of great

Reading Assignment: Chapter 1 <<>> Review Questions: #1-8

The learning objectives for this lesson are to gain an understanding of:

  • Why the study of “good to great” companies was undertaken
  • An overview of the framework of concepts that were developed from the study

2) Level 5 leadership

Reading Assignment: Chapter 2 <<>> Review Questions: # 9-12

The learning objectives for this lesson are to gain an understanding of:

  • The hierarchy of executive capabilities identified in the research
  • Defining a level 5 leader
  • How leaders set up successors for success
  • Qualities of a level 5 leader
  • Cultivating level 5 leadership
  • The role of celebrity leaders

3)  First who. . then what

Reading Assignment: Chapter 3  <<>> Review Questions: # 13-19

The learning objectives for this lesson are to gain an understanding of:

  • Getting the right people on the bus and figuring out where to drive it
  • Why “who” questions come before “why” questions
  • What the “genius with a thousand helpers” model is
  • Rigorous vs. ruthless leaders
  • How to search for the best answers

4)  Confront the brutal facts (yet never lose faith)

Reading Assignment: Chapter 4 <<>> Review Questions: 20-26

The learning objectives for this lesson are to gain an understanding of:

  • How to examine the current reality
  • Creating a culture for the truth to be heard
  • Responding to adversity

5)  The hedgehog concept (simplicity within the three circles)

Reading Assignment: Chapter 5 <<>> Review Questions: $27-35

The learning objectives for this lesson are to gain an understanding:

  • The definition of the hedgehog concept
  • How to determine your core business
  • How to develop insight into the drivers of your economic engine
  • How to set goals and strategies

6)  A culture of discipline

Reading Assignment: Chapter 6 <<>> Review Questions: #36-42

The learning objectives for this lesson are to gain an understanding of:

  • How to sustain great results
  • Bureaucracy and its causes and effects
  • The components of a culture of discipline

7)  Technology accelerators

Reading Assignment: Chapter 7 <<>> Review Questions: #43-48

The learning objectives for this lesson are to gain an understanding of:

  • Technology and the Hedgehog concept
  • Technology accelerators in the good-to-great companies
  • Technology as an accelerator, not a creator, of momentum
  • The technology trap
  • Technology and the fear of being left behind

8)  The flywheel and the doom loop

Reading Assignment: Chapter 8 <<>> Review Questions: #49-55

The learning objectives for this lesson are to gain an understanding of:

  • Buildup and breakthrough
  • How circumstances affect the buildup-breakthrough flywheel model
  • The “flywheel effect”
  • How changing course repeatedly can create a “doom loop”
  • The misguided use of acquisitions
  • The flywheel as a wraparound idea

9)  From Good to Great to Built to Last

Reading Assignment: Chapter 9 <<>> Review Questions: #56-60

The learning objectives for this lesson are to gain an understanding of:

  • How the great companies in “Built to Last” used the good-to great framework during their formative years
  • Core ideology: the extra dimension of enduring greatness
  • Good bhags, bad bhags, and other conceptual links
  • Why greatness?