Great by Choice

Jim Collins followed up Good to Great and Built to Last with Great by Choice, focused specifically on companies that did well during periods of high uncertainty. He and his coauthor Morten Hansen looked at firms that beat their industries by ten times during chaotic decades and tried to figure out what they had in common.

The answers Collins lands on are familiar in shape if you’ve read his other work. Disciplined people, disciplined thought, disciplined action. He gives them new names here. Twenty-mile march, fire bullets then cannonballs, productive paranoia.

The case studies cover Amgen, Microsoft, Southwest Airlines, and others, with comparisons against industry rivals that did less well during the same periods.

Readers who liked the earlier Collins books will find this one in the same vein. New readers can start here, but Good to Great is the more famous foundation.