GOOD TO GREAT/COLLINS 5-10

10. In our study...

• Larger-than-life, celebrity leaders who ride in from the outside are negatively correlated with taking a company from good to great. Ten of eleven good-to-great CEO's came from inside the company, whereas the comparison companies tried outside CEO's six times more often.
  
• We found no systematic pattern linking specific forms of executive compensation to the process of going from good to great. The idea that the structure of executive compensation is a key driver in corporate performance is simply not supported by the data.
  
• Strategy per se did not separate the good-to-great companies from the comparison companies. Both sets of companies had well-defined strategies, and there is no evidence that the good-to-great companies spent more time on long-range strategic planning than the comparison companies.
  
• The good-to-great companies did not focus principally on what to do to become great; they focused equally on what not to do and what to stop doing.
  
• Technology and technology-driven change has virtually nothing to do with igniting a transformation from good to great. Technology can accelerate a transformation, but technology cannot cause a transformation.
  
• Mergers and acquisitions play virtually no role in igniting a transformation from good to great; two big mediocrities joined together never make one great company.
  
• The good-to-great companies paid scant attention to managing change, motivating people, or creating alignment, motivation, and change largely melt away.
  
• The good-to-great companies had no name, tag line, launch event, or program to signify their transformations. Indeed, some reported being unaware to signify their transformations. Indeed, some reported being unaware of the magnitude of the transformation at the time; only later, in retrospect, did it become clear. Yes, they produced a truly revolutionary leap in results, but not by a revolutionary process.
  
• The gtg (good-to-great) companies were not, by and large, in great industries, and some were in terrible industries. In no case do we have a company that just happened to be sitting on the nose cone of a rocket when it took off. Greatness is not a function of circumstance. Greatness, it turns out, is largely a matter of conscious choice.