ARTICLES

Great by Choice Book Review

Book review by Hazel Jackson, CEO of biz-group

This was a long awaited book for me as a huge fan of Collins and his strategy classic Good to Great and more recently a book I loved How the Mighty Fall.  It took me a few days to get over my initial disappointment though.  He had set the research time frame around from 1972 – 2002.  Why exclude the incredible changes and chaos from the last 5 years?  The research project was 9 years in duration and was true to Collins nature rigorous and detailed.  Once I got past the first chapter I was instantly engrossed by what they found and how applicable it was despite the time frame studied.

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5 ways to healthier employees

Getting your staff on the wellness track is good for them and good for your business. In this article Verne Harnish, CEO of Gazelles Inc. gives you 5 ideas that companies are already using.

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Six Key Trends That Improve Employee Engagement and Productivity

A recent survey of over 1,400 executives and educators across multiple industries was conducted by Fierce Inc, a front runner in global leadership development and training.
Results reveal that limited conversation skills are not unique to any one industry and are not influence greatly by the position held within an organisation. Communication approaches and interactions, whether they are effective or ineffective, impact all levels and functions within every sector.

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Talent Acquisition

Companies I talk to around the world are back to hiring aggressively.  However, it’s always taxing to find enough quality candidates to fill the pipeline, especially after the hiring drought many companies have experienced the past couple years; seems everyone is either out of practice and/or their referral networks have dried up.  And without a large enough pool of quality candidates, the likelihood of hiring “A” players drops dramatically.

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Book Summary: Great by Choice

The nine-year research project behind this book started in 2002 around a simple question: Why do some companies thrive in uncertainty, even chaos, and others do not? When buffeted by tumultuous events, when hit by big, fast-moving forces that we can neither predict nor control, what distinguishes those who perform exceptionally well from those who underperform or worse?

The research method rests upon having a comparison set. The critical question is not “What did great companies share in common?” The critical question is “What did great companies share in common that distinguished them from their direct comparisons?”

Comparisons are companies that were in the same industry with the same or very similar opportunities during the same era as the 10X companies, yet they did not produce great performance.

10Xers (“ten-EX-ers”) - companies that didn’t merely get by or just become successful. They truly thrived. Every 10X beat its industry index by at least 10 times.

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