Great By Choice
Why do some companies thrive despite them all? This is a book review on Great By Choice by James C. Collins and Morten T. Hansen. This book highlights overarching principles on how great companies manage to thrive in turbulent and chaotic times. Their disciplined approach toward results is what allow companies like Intel, Microsoft and Apple to outdo their competitors by consistently hitting their goals regardless of good or bad events. Furthermore, contrary to popular beliefs, innovativeness does not produce novel competitive advantage against competitors in the same industry. In order for a corporation to thrive, it has to be able to also handle external situations that can be both negative and positive well.
This book is an antonym of Outlier by Malcolm Gladwell. Great by choice studies extensively the result of superior companies by comparing them against those companies’ immediate competitors.
The authors left no stones unturned and carried out a tremendously meticulous and analytical understanding of the top performing companies as well as their comparison cases. Here are 5 of the most essential points in the book that we can mirror and best learn from in order to thrive in today’s turbulent time.
1) Fanatic Discipline
It is all about putting the effort, and disciplining your mind towards an outcome that you hold dearly onto for a long period of time. It is about working even when you do not feel like doing the necessary tasks needed to fulfil your deepest aspirations and dreams. If you ever feel burnt out from work, think about all the people who are suffering much more than you are. Think about the children suffering from cancer who will not live to see their teenage years. Or the soldiers who are coming back from war without their legs. Keep yourself motivated and aspired to continue to pursue your dreams with a relentless attitude.
2) Empirical Creativity
The concept of innovation has been over romanticized without analysing deeply into the creation of those novel work. For example, there were many companies before Facebook with very similar concept and design interface. However, what allowed Facebook to triumph against these companies were mainly because of empirical understanding of the backstage operations. Many competitors of Facebook were unable to scale their systems in such a global and massive manner, therefore, unable to serve the vertically volatile group of new users when their service when viral. It is therefore important to always look for substantiated evidences to help push for your new endeavour.
3) Productive Paranoia
It is the entirety of fear that pushes people outside of their comfort zone. After Bill Gates had manage to stabilize Microsoft, he was in constant paranoia of another undergraduate who would work harder than him in creating an operating system like Windows that could potentially topple Microsoft. Because of this fear, he pushes his company toward the boundaries of technology so that he create a gap that is difficult to overcome.
4) Level 5 Ambition
Being highly ambitious is one of the potential ways to skyrocket your company. With an ambition beyond your competitors, you are better able to push forth toward a greater height in accomplishments. Bill Gates wanted to put a computer in every home, and Steve Jobs was willing to live everyday as though it is his last. If you aim for the stars, you at least fall somewhere at the sky.
5) 20 Mile March
Day in and day out, companies aim for long term strategic goals in which they must achieve by the end of every financial year. The 20 mile march is an example of going 20 miles through a tough and tedious track no matter how favourable nor uncomfortable the environment is. If your company is doing exceptionally well like how AMD did during the 90s and early 2000s, hold back from expanding too rapidly. Rapid expansion can spell doom if it is not managed properly. At the same time, if your company is facing a financial crisis or affected by being governmental regulations, it is important to continue to innovate and march your company to hit the 20 mile goal.
Not only can you apply the above to the company you are running, you can apply it to your life. Pursue your dreams day in and day out, and soon you will realize how far you have come from the beginning.
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