Author Jim Collins is always a joy to read. Whether he is unlocking the secrets of how great companies climb above their peers in "Good to Great" or why some companies endure for generations and others don't in "Built to last" or why companies implode and collapse in "How the mighty fall" and why some companies survive and even thrive among the chaos of constant change and others fail in "Great by Choice".
"Beyond 2.0" is his latest book but also h is oldest book, in that its a reboot of his earliest book co-authored with fellow Stanford University don Bill Lazier.
It is probably his best book yet and most relevant for the majority of businessmen, because it speaks to how to build a company from the ground up. His previous offerings have often analysed the multibillion dollar corporations that populate the Fortune 500, which while pointing out universal lessons for business, dabbled in the rarefied atmosphere of success that nine in ten businesses will never attain live alone dream about.
But it is also his best because he brings the lessons from his other best sellers to bear on his first book, also called 'Beyond Entrepreneurship" published in 1992. So between its covers it has the audacity of youth and wisdom of hindsight.
So you want to start a business and your initial preoccupations are with raising capital, finding premises and attraction customers, even hiring decisions are far away down the line. The book deals with none of the above, but instead emphasises the often ignored, forgotten or ignorance of the soft skills needed to improve a company's success and eventual longevity.
Collins counsels that in our businesses we should place more emphasis on people, leadership style, vision, strategy, innovation and tactical excellence.
When you are a businessman in the thick of things, trying to survive let alone thrive, these softer issues seem like something for somebody else, no wonder you will not last five years.
There were many lessons in this book --- I underlined almost 250 of them, but these are my five lessons, in no order of preference.
1. The only way to build an enduring great company that makes great products is to have the right people working in the right culture.
He says to be a good leader is a choice and not bestowed upon you by your title or by genetics. Leadership is key because it determines the culture of companies and enterprises. Culture is what is allowed and comes from mimicking what the leader does. Culture flows from the top to the bottom and never the other way around.
This is important because good people will work where the culture allows them to thrive and fulfill their potential. And also because great companies are made by good people more than good ideas.
Related to leadership Collins believes the key metric businesses should be measuring -- not profit margins or ROIs or ROEs but "the percentage of key seats on the bus filled with the right people".
2. The number one responsibility of a leader is to catalyse a clear and shared vision for the company and to secure commitment to and vigorous pursuit of that vision.
What do most of us do, we just jump in start selling. The vision sets a destination, the bigger the vision committed to the better the chance of long term success.
Of course most businesspeople even of the most lauded companies did not get around to articulating their vision until years into the business but Collins argues that once this is done and shared a major inflection point was reached.
But even more important is sharing it and having universal commitment to it. Everybody must know his part in making the vision come to fruition, as a way to ensuring that the company will live beyond the founder.
3. Don't grow too fast. You need to grow slow enough to develop good management. If you push too fast you lose your values.
Once a company fails to live to its values, which underpin its vision, strategy and culture, success is not assured. if for no thing else rapid expansion should be discouraged.
The temptation for rapid expansion is always there when opportunities present themselves or you are flush with cash. But speed kills or at least makes holding everything together all the more difficult.
4. The real challenge isn't how to be creative but how to become self-disciplined while keeping vibrant the full force of your natural creativity
To be an innovative company is critical to survival to success. The temptation for the autocrats and the micromanagers is to stifle rather than enable creativity and innovation. But the key to keeping the creatives on message is to ensure they know and appreciate the company vision and then let them run.
5.The last lesson I will let Collins say in his own words
"Good people attract good people, who, in turn attract more good people and so on .... The primary assessment of good should be "Does this person for with our values? Is this person willing to buy into what we're all about? Is this person likely to live with our precepts?"
Which brings us full circle... You cannot build a great company without good people; you cannot have good people if you are not clear about your values and culture; you can not be clear about your values and culture if you are not clear about strategy; and you can not be clear about strategy if you are not clear about the vision for your company.
First vision then strategy then tactics.
An all around good read for anyone going into business or planning to build an impactful enterprise in any endeavor.
