2012 Global Leadership Summit Session 2b: Jim Collins

Session 2 – Great By Choice
Jim Collins

Nationally Acclaimed Business Thinker and Author

• Relentlessly curious student of enduring great companies, he is the author of the leadership classics Built to Last and Good to Great
• Groundbreaking researcher and founder of his own management research lab in Boulder, Colorado
• Former faculty at the Stanford Graduate School of Business
• His newest release, Great by Choice, answers the penetrating question, Why do some companies thrive in uncertainty, even chaos, and others do not?

Session Notes

• Level 5 leader – x factor of a great leader is humility combined with will
• fantastic discipline
  • 2 approaches, 1) we’ll march when conditions are good, 2) we’ll march no matter what
  • Fantastic discipline also includes not overdoing it. Have capacity to face the unexpected.
  • Southwest airlines stock has produced the best return from 1972-2012. In 1996, when 100 cities wanted Southwest, they came into 4 so they wouldn’t’ be over-stretched.
  • Every church and business should have a “20 mile march.”
  • What is our “20 mile march?”
  • “20 mile march” idea is all about consistent, consecutive performance.
  • What do we need to do today so we can hit our “20 mile march” consistently?
  • The signature of mediocrity is inconsistency.
• imperical creativity
  • Scott bet his expedition on motor carriages which were untested & cracked.
  • Amundsen lived with Eskimos & learned dogs would be better than horses for South Pole expedition
  • “Fire bullets then cannons” – Launch small creative ideas, when one hits then invest more resources.
  • The marriage of creativity and discipline. Discipline should amplify creativity rather than stifle it.  
• productive paranoia
  • The only mistakes you can learn from are the ones you survive.
  • Successful companies have a high cash to assets ratio.
  • Take paranoia and translate it into preparation and buffers.
  • If you’re only strong when conditions are good that’s malpractice.
• SMaC – Specific, Methodical and Consistent
• The greatest danger is not failure but to be successful and not know why.
• Change your SMaC only based on empirical data.
• Preserve the core but stimulate progress. Separate values from practices.
• Think of an event that a) you didn’t cause it, b) potentially significant consequence, c) surprising result. How did you as a leader perform in those circumstances?
• What is the role of luck in success?  He decided to define and study luck.
• The key is to see luck as an event that a) you didn’t cause it, b) potentially significant consequence, c) surprising result.
• 1) Are these 10x winners luckier? No.
• 2) What did they do in response?
• It’s not a matter of whether you will face those events but what you do with them.
• Thousands of people could have created Basic for the first PC. Bill Gates did it.
• Life is people and time with the people you love.
• What is your “return on luck?”
• Great leaders take advantage of the big, unexpected events both good and bad.
• Greatness is not primarily a function of circumstance but rather discipline and conscious choice.
• 3 qualities of a great organization
  • superior performance relative to your mission
  • makes a distinctive impact
  • achieves lasting endurance beyond any one leader
• An organization is not truly great if it cannot be great without you. 
• Thanked Bill Hybels
• I hope you will all commit to being a part of something great and enduring.
• It is impossible to have a great life without having a meaningful life.