Good to Great - Jim Collins Theory of Success
Jim Collins and his team of researchers have done a tremendous job that has allowed them to identify the characteristics of the most successful companies. The insights and findings retrieved by Collins are
reflected in the book From Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap...and Others Don’t. Presented paper will identify two companies, retell their stories and explain the lessons that can be learned from them.
One of the lessons discussed in the book refers to the proactive positions of the great companies. Collins asserts that the good companies are frequently merely reactive. The companies tend to compare themselves to
the competitors and, therefore, they are always behind. The great companies are usually ahead of changes (Collins). The good companies are motivated by their fear of being in the last whereas exactly that feeling actually prevents them from the success. While analyzing the reasons for success, Collins asserts that turning from good to great, the companies were motivated by the deep creative urge as well as internal seeking for the
unlimited excellence.
The book examines the case of the Walgreens Company. It has had the tremendous success with the initial public offering. After first seconds of the opening, the stocks multiplied to $65 per share. It costed $69 four
weeks after IPO. However, when the company was forced to react, it chose adverse strategy (Collins). It represented the crawling, running, pausing, walking and other chaotic actions. They started with creating of the rime to overview the market and the industry before passing the decisions. Over time, the company provided its customers with a number of the options available of the website (Collins). For example, they could order drugs
online regardless of the country. Walgreens then decided to mix its convenience concept and inventory distribution system and unite it all on the website with the advanced user’s opportunities. In other words, the
company went ahead its competitors, became proactive and, eventually, great.
On the other hand, Collins examines the case of the website drugstore.com. Confronted with the challenges brought by the technology, the company did not manage to survive the competition and accept the challenge with the needed seriousness. As a result, it experienced massive losses and layoffs (Collins).
While reflecting these two case studies, the author stresses on the particular strategy that might be accepted by the company when it is confronted with the change upcoming. He asserts that at first it is important to crawl meaning that the company should experiment with the new item, in these cases -technology, and determine whether it can benefit from it and whether it fits the company. Then the company can walk, e.g, to consider the ways to use the new technology and implement it into the operations. The third step is …
