Spring, 2009
Good to Great – Jim Collins
Jim Collins may have a point, but he’s one of those consultants who likes to come up with his own terminology – Stages 1 – 4, etcetera. I read Good to Great, which was an entertaining and wise book, but the whole thing reminds me of the Reengineering fad from the early 90’s. Remember that? Michael Hammer and James Champy, and their book was simply titled” Reengineering”. That was all the rage back then, Reenginnering, Biotech, and remember the Stock Market phrase: “10,000 by 2000!”. Boy – I’d like to go back to those years, and let me tell you, my portfolio has already gone back to those years when the Dow was at 8,000. Or is that now? Can’t remember – it seems to me, I’ve been saving and investing for the last 10 years, but when I look at the news, I see the Dow is at 8,000. What gives?
Back to Jim Collins. In his previous two books, Good to Great and Built to Last, he talks about great companies who supposedly will always be great. Now that the economy has tanked, he is talking about companies that fail. He’s good at spotting a trend – or is he following a trend? There’s a difference.
