M. Lee Smith President Dan Oswald reviews the book Good to Great by Jim Collins. Review highlight’s books theories on leadership, people (employees), discipline, and technology in business.

Of all the business books I’ve read throughout my career, Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t has had the greatest influence on the way I think about management. Drawing conclusions from his research of some of the most successful companies of the 20th Century, Collins identifies key areas that he believes are essential for a company to be great, including:

Leadership — In the book, Collins identifies the common traits of the executives who run hyper-successful companies and creates a profile of the type of leadership it takes to run a great company. Much of his focus is on how they have both a personal humility and a professional will. These two traits make for an interesting combination that Collins argues is crucial for this level of success. According to Collins leaders in great companies “channel their ego needs away from themselves and into the larger goal of building a great company . . . their ambition is first and foremost for the institution, not themselves.”

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