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.
What impacted you from this session? What action will you take as a result?
1 thought on “2012 Global Leadership Summit Session 2b: Jim Collins”