GOOD TO GREAT/COLLINS 53-57

54 Six of the eleven gtg companies recorded zero layoffs from ten years before the breakthrough date all the way through 1998, and four others reported only one or two layoffs.

Endless restructuring and mindless hacking were never part of the gtg model.

3 DISCIPLINES FOR BEING RIGOROUS RATHER THAN RUTHLESS.

Practical Discipline #1 When in doubt, don't hire--keep looking. NO company can grow revenues consistently faster than its ability to get enough of the right people to implement that growth and still become a great company.

Those who build great companies understand that the ultimate throttle on growth for any great company is not markets, or technology, or competition, or products. It is one thing above all others: the ability to get and keep enough of the right people.

Practical Discipline #2 When you know you need to make a people change, act.

57 The gtg companies showed the following bipolar pattern at the top management level: People either stayed on the bus for a long time or got off the bus in a hurry. In other words, the gtg companies did not churn more, they churned better.

58 It might take time to know for certain if someone is simply in the wrong seat or whether he needs to get off the bus altogether. Nonetheless, when the gtg leaders knew they had to make a people change, they would act.

Practical Discipline #3: Put your best people on your biggest opportunities, and your biggest problems.