Good to Great
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Start with 1,435 good companies. Examine their performance over 40
years. Find the 11 companies that became great. Now, here's how you
can do it too.
by Jim Collins
illustrations by Greg Clarke
from FC issue 51, page 90
Read the entire article at http://www.fastcompany.com/online/51/goodtogreat.html
How Change Does Happen
Now picture a huge, heavy flywheel. It's a massive, metal disk mounted
horizontally on an axle. It's about 100 feet in diameter, 10 feet thick, and it
weighs about 25 tons. That flywheel is your company. Your job is to get
that flywheel to move as fast as possible, because momentum -- mass
times velocity -- is what will generate superior economic results over time.
Right now, the flywheel is at a standstill. To get it moving, you make a
tremendous effort. You push with all of your might, and finally, you get the
flywheel to inch forward. After two or three days of sustained effort, you
get the flywheel to complete one entire turn. You keep pushing, and the
flywheel begins to move a bit faster. It takes a lot of work, but at last the
flywheel makes a second rotation. You keep pushing steadily. It makes
three turns, four turns, five, six. With each turn, it moves faster, and then
-- at some point, you can't say exactly when -- you break through. The
momentum of the heavy wheel kicks in your favor. It spins faster and
faster, with its own weight propelling it. You aren't pushing any harder, but
the flywheel is accelerating, its momentum building, its speed increasing.
This is the Flywheel Effect. It's what it feels like when you're inside a
company that makes the transition from good to great. Take Kroger, for
example. How do you get a company with more than 50,000 people to
embrace a new strategy that will eventually change every aspect of every
grocery store? You don't. At least not with one big change program.
Instead, you put your shoulder to the flywheel. That's what Jim Herring,
the leader who initiated the transformation of Kroger, told us. He stayed
away from change programs and motivational stunts. He and his team
began turning the flywheel gradually, consistently -- building tangible
evidence that their plans made sense and would deliver results.