Great by Choice

Uncertainty, Chaos and Luck - Why Some Thrive Despite Them All

By: Morten T Hansen, Jim Collins

Narrated by: Jim Collins

The New Question.
Ten years after the worldwide best seller Good to Great, Jim Collins returns with another ground-breaking work, this time to ask: Why do some companies thrive in uncertainty, even chaos, and others do not? Based on nine years of research, buttressed by rigorous analysis and infused with engaging stories, Collins and his colleague, Morten Hansen, enumerate the principles for building a truly great enterprise in unpredictable, tumultuous, and fast-moving times.

The New Study.
Great by Choice distinguishes itself from Collins's prior work by its focus not just on performance, but also on the type of unstable environments faced by leaders today. With a team of more than 20 researchers, Collins and Hansen studied companies that rose to greatness - beating their industry indexes by a minimum of 10 times over 15 years - in environments characterized by big forces and rapid shifts that leaders could not predict or control. The research team then contrasted these "10X companies" to a carefully selected set of comparison companies that failed to achieve greatness in similarly extreme environments.

The New Findings.
The study results were full of provocative surprises. Such as:

• The best leaders were not more risk taking, more visionary, and more creative than the comparisons; they were more disciplined, more empirical, and more paranoid.
• Innovation by itself turns out not to be the trump card in a chaotic and uncertain world; more important is the ability to scale innovation, to blend creativity with discipline.
• Following the belief that leading in a "fast world" always requires "fast decisions" and "fast action" is a good way to get killed.
• The great companies changed less in reaction to a radically changing world than the comparison companies.

The authors challenge conventional wisdom with thought-provoking, sticky, and supremely practical concepts. They include 10Xers; the 20 Mile March; Fire Bullets then Cannonballs; Leading above the Death Line; Zoom Out, Then Zoom In; and the SMaC Recipe. Finally, in the last chapter, Collins and Hansen present their most provocative and original analysis: defining, quantifying, and studying the role of luck.

The great companies and the leaders who built them were not luckier than the comparisons, but they did get a higher Return on Luck. This book is classic Collins: contrarian, data driven, and uplifting. He and Hansen show convincingly that, even in a chaotic and uncertain world, greatness happens by choice, not by chance.

©2011 Jim Collins and Morten T. Hansen (P)2011 HarperCollins Publishers, US

Critic reviews

"Jim Collins has built a reputation as something of a myth buster... This book is recommended." ( Financial World, Dec 2011)

"Luck is not a strategy’ the authors conclude. What determines any organization’s success is how it prepares for both good and bad luck. They call this getting a ‘positive return’ on luck and, if Good to Great’s four million-plus sales are anything to go by, this idea will be embedded in corporate speak before you know it." ( Philip Delves Broughton, author of What They Teach you At Harvard Business School in Management Today

“If you want to understand what it takes to run a great company in any circumstances and you admire brilliant analysis and a clear, evocative writing style, then Great By Choice is worth five stars out of five.” ( James Scouller, People Management)

You just can't beat Jim Collins by Jim Collins!

If you could sum up Great by Choice in three words, what would they be?

Passion, facts and discipline lead to greatness in business (9 words!).

What other book might you compare Great by Choice to and why?

All of Jim Collins and Tom Peters books!

Have you listened to any of Jim Collins’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No, just read them.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Perhaps energized is the right word.

Any additional comments?

If you're into business and?or leadership books then you should definitely listen to this one!

Jim's narrative was painful at first, but soon got

Any additional comments?

Jim's narrative was painful at first, but soon got over that - the content in this one is fantastic - his best so far!!!

Good book and backed by data

Struggled to listen to reader sometimes. Almost sounds like some part we're made up. Message though was great and I learnt a lot

More great anecdotes

What made the experience of listening to Great by Choice the most enjoyable?

Anecdotes help me visualise the crux of the topic. Then the reference back to business decisions and performance outcomes gives depth/ application

If you’ve listened to books by Jim Collins and Morten T Hansen before, how does this one compare?

Good to great is still the best

Which scene was your favorite?

Race to the South Pole

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Nothing emotional, just lots of ideas to apply

Any additional comments?

Great body of work amongst his books - ideas about simplifying many actions down to principles.

Always enjoy Jim Collins' studies...

Where does Great by Choice rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

pretty good.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Great by Choice?

the stories used to illustrate his key points are memorable.

Which scene was your favorite?

the 20-mile march concept

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

the three key points as a whole is very sticky.

Any additional comments?

no

Well researched and a timely book for today.

What did you love best about Great by Choice?

Jim Collin's work is well researched and nicely argued. He has tried well to make sense of what makes companies successful and not so successful.

Did the narration match the pace of the story?

Yes. Being read by Jim Collin's himself, I think helped.

Very insightful

Awesome perspectives and analysis, great to have for anyone running or building a business

Another excellent addition to the "Great" family

I have read all the books by Jim Collins, and as an entrepreneur his offerings never fail to give me many great insights and new thinking in how to build and run my enterprises effectively and successfully. Highly recommended.

Great by audio

Any additional comments?

Great book that extends the previous research and looks at what is needed to thrive in a constantly changing world. Examples from different areas of life are used as well as business examples. Some interesting insights some are counter intuitive. Highly recommend.

Informative, and valuable lessons in Business.

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes, It has great concepts in the book about business and what makes one great.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Great by Choice?

There is many stories to explain the concepts in the book.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes, you could stop listening.

Any additional comments?

Would advice it to anyone.