The following is an excerpt for Mr. Collins' soon to be released book from Harper Business Publishers, Good to Great. Good is the enemy of great. And that is one key reason why we have so little that becomes great. We don t have great schools, principally because we have good schools. We don t have great government, precisely because we have good government.
Few people attain great lives, in large part because it s just so easy to settle for a good life.
The vast majority of companies never become great, precisely because the vast majority become quite good and that is their main problem. This point became piercingly clear to me in 1996, when I was having dinner with a group of thought leaders gathered for a wide ranging discussion about organizational performance. You and your co-author did a very fine job on the research and writing. Unfortunately, it s useless. I d heard before.