Journey Unto Greatness Demystified!: A Review of 'Great by Choice' by Jim Collins & Morten T Hansen Part II

Journey Unto Greatness Demystified!: A Review of 'Great by Choice' by Jim Collins and Morten T Hansen Part I 

Journey Unto Greatness Demystified!: A Review of 'Great by Choice' by Jim Collins and Morten T Hansen Part II

Journey Unto Greatness Demystified!: A Review of 'Great by Choice' by Jim Collins and Morten T Hansen Part III

Journey Unto Greatness Demystified!: A Review of 'Great by Choice' by Jim Collins and Morten T Hansen Part IV  

Journey Unto Greatness Demystified!: A Review of 'Great by Choice' by Jim Collins and Morten T Hansen Part V

20 Mile March, the chapter on fanatic discipline, takes off with seemingly contradictory quote, 'Freely chosen, discipline is absolute freedom.' by Ron Serino. In my view, when we emphasize on passion, we are expecting the person to impose discipline on self to achieve his goal to turn discipline into freedom. I personally have noted this kind of enjoying the freedom by national leaders when they experienced freedom in their struggle for freedom. 

The authors mention about John Brown's 'the Law' of 20% growth in Stryker. And they hit 20% growth 90% times in the period of study. This is contrasted to USSC's inconsistent growth. John Brown operationalized the 20% consistent growth in his organization through 'Snorkel Award'. 20% growth was treated as 'watermark' and any performance below 20% was awarded a snorkel and the award was to be displayed by the employee.

The 20 Mile March may be chosen based on industry characteristics and the organization's own assessment and road map thus planned.  I found Gordon Moore of Intel's statement of 'double the chip performance every 18 months' a great guideline. Intel, not only stuck to the discipline of executing it; Microsoft and other software firms had clear roadmap to deliver appropriately power guzzling applications to ensure the disciplined march in IT industry! It was rather ecosystem defining growth roadmap. It's a different matter that both the organizations missed, in terms of execution, on internet and mobile  related exponential growths. In my view, Google has been getting it right through their own disciplined approach to the growth. The so called 'best mover advantage' accrues to the organizations based on the discipline they adopt to deliver consistent performance in aptly chosen metrics adapting to the external environment.

According to the authors, '20 Miles March' imposes two self imposed discomforts to the organizations. They are: Unwavering commitment in difficult conditions and Holding back in good times. They also bring forward the example of 30 years' consecutive profits in SouthWest Airlines (SWA). That's really amazing march in such a chaotic market! They also highlight that SWA took nearly a quarter century before reaching eastern seaboard! Unwavering commitment in difficult times strengthens the organizations to achieve the growth and also gives the confidence to beat the target. So the capability and confidences of the organizations are built in hard times. Whereas, holding back in good times helps them to work on other issues and enough resources are released for long term roadmapping and building execution capabilities accordingly. Additionally, the organization doesn't get over-strained! 

In my view, an organization is a tightly held system with multiple teams coordinating amongst and between themselves to deliver great performance to achieve long term goals. Whereas hard times test the cohesiveness amongst and between the teams; the  organization stretches itself to deliver the results and gains confidence and capability in the process. The linkages amongst teams get strengthened in the process. Conversely, the restraint in good times, rejuvenates the team and also helps them to leverage their stretched capabilities to build the right execution roadmap and deliver results consistently in line with the roadmap. The fanatic discipline of consistent performance helps the organizations to build capability, confidence to overcome the chaotic environment. Since the less disciplined ones are generally less passionate about the market they are operating; they may find the fanatic discipline of great organizations out of place!

The authors give a very telling case study of USSC which fought JnJ's sutures market to gain nearly 40% market share in a very short span. It was considered much more than the gain of 10% market share in that period which had been considered as great performance. According to authors, USSC also overstretched itself in laparoscopic devices market and failed. When the healthcare market was hit by Clinton's reforms, JnJ hit back at USSC's core market thus debilitating USSC almost forever! In a way, the fanatic discipline makes the organizations super resilient to ride over black swan events rather easily. This is where I get more convinced of Toyota's way. 

The following are the elements of a good 20 Mile March;

• A Challenging Performance marker to ensure optimum stretch both in good and hard times.
• Self imposed upper and lower limits (in my view (+/-20%)
• Apt for the ecosystem to be a 10Xer - this needs the deep understanding of the ecosystem
• Controllable, as the external environment is beyond control 
• Goldilock timeframe leveraging the understanding of the organization and ecosystem
• Designed and self imposed by the organization
• High consistency

Talking about what makes good 20 Mile March the authors provide the case study of Progressive Insurance. Peter Lewis set two basic underlying principles for the growth of Progressive: 1) Exemplary Customer Service and 2) Achieve Profitable Combined ratio. The organization had to achieve these parameters without any excuses while correcting the failures. Whereas Safeco, the comparison company went through yo-yo path. Safeco lost hugely ($52Mn.) in 1989; then in 1997 took over another company to catapult to #12 position from #22! In the 16 years' span studies for the companies, Progressive met its targets in 14 of 16 years ie. 87.5% hit ratio v/s Safeco met it's target only 4 years ie. 25%! The other comparison pairs also had similar fates. The goals of the comparison organizations offers interesting study. Stryker had 20% growth target every year while the comparison company USSC overextended with much higher growth target. Southwest Airlines achieved profit for 30 consecutive years. PSA abandoned the discipline in '70s and sunk in '90s, whereas South West Airlines had faithfully  copied PSA's business model and executed well! Intel embraced Moore's Law and ruled the PC ecosystem along with Microsoft. AMD had unsteady ups and downs. Microsoft mastered the art of launching an imperfect product and then keep on improving the product based on user feedback. Apple had inconsistent growth at that time. Amgen stuck to incremental product innovations and Genentech bet big.

Recently, I went through an amazing story of Ramona Piersons. Ramona Piersons went through horrible accident, wherein she almost lost her life. Through the lens of the above understanding, one can clearly note the fanatic discipline she applied to regain, physically and intellectually and then in all spheres of her life! She went through series of problems too, but she always emerged triumphant. Her indomitable story can be an inspiration for many.  In my view, her fanatic discipline, applied to both intellectual and physical aspects, helped her to swim through the troubles and emerge as a highly successful entrepreneur and family person.

The authors provide three reasons for the success due to fanatic discipline applied to 20 Mile March.

1. Confidence built from performance in adversity: This explains the defined success in the adverse period. The business leaders coach their teams to deliver performance, which brings immense confidence to their teams. The teams start taking responsibility for the success rather than the uncontrollable business conditions. In my view, it brings the knowledge of what can be controlled and what can't be. Additionally, the team members exercise their wisdom in executing what can be changed so as to deliver the performance metrics. the authors offer case study of John Brown of Stryker. The whole point is about having resources and the sense of responsibility to take on the humongous challenges posed by the forces beyond us.
2. Avoidance of catastrophe: As the consistent pace of growth is set by 20 Mile March, the organizations are at liberty to adapt to the crises, which inevitably emerge due to black swan events or otherwise. In a way, the consistent pace builds super resiliency in the organization. The authors highlight AMDs troubles against Intel to drive home the fact. The authors conclude that the ferocious instability, due to black swan events, favors the 20 Mile Marchers over the others!
3. Continuous feedback system: The fanatic discipline forces the organization to stick to continuous feedback system to adapt to the faster changing realities around us. Personally, this has been the major learning from Toyota Way literature.

Many other researches focused on individual performance and success lead towards similar conclusions. Notably, Angela Duckworth's study on Grit and Self-control, Carol Dweck's study on mindset and the book, Talent Code. One can clearly identify the trend of these studies leading to a unified theory of achievement of greatness both for the organizations and individuals. Fanatic discipline is the first part of the framework. The review of the remaining parts of the framework, viz., Productive Paranoia, Empirical Creativity and Level 5 Leadership, will be taken up in the next parts.

Journey Unto Greatness Demystified!: A Review of 'Great by Choice' by Jim Collins and Morten T Hansen Part I 

Journey Unto Greatness Demystified!: A Review of 'Great by Choice' by Jim Collins and Morten T Hansen Part II

Journey Unto Greatness Demystified!: A Review of 'Great by Choice' by Jim Collins and Morten T Hansen Part III

Journey Unto Greatness Demystified!: A Review of 'Great by Choice' by Jim Collins and Morten T Hansen Part IV  

Journey Unto Greatness Demystified!: A Review of 'Great by Choice' by Jim Collins and Morten T Hansen Part V

Journey Unto Greatness Demystified!: A Review of 'Great by Choice' by Jim Collins & Morten T Hansen Part I

Journey Unto Greatness Demystified!: A Review of 'Great by Choice' by Jim Collins and Morten T Hansen Part I 

Journey Unto Greatness Demystified!: A Review of 'Great by Choice' by Jim Collins and Morten T Hansen Part II

Journey Unto Greatness Demystified!: A Review of 'Great by Choice' by Jim Collins and Morten T Hansen Part III

Journey Unto Greatness Demystified!: A Review of 'Great by Choice' by Jim Collins and Morten T Hansen Part IV  

Journey Unto Greatness Demystified!: A Review of 'Great by Choice' by Jim Collins and Morten T Hansen Part V


It is a great pleasure going through Great by Choice. I had been waiting to read the book for quite sometime. The craving to read a book of this caliber was being felt. Personally, I believe that there are very few authors who delve deep into the chaotic changes in business management world, identify the right issues to demystify  the chaos around us. Then they present the outcomes to the readers in clear, simple terms. Such books turn out to be highly successful and also greatly help the management practitioners vastly. The books by authors like Jim Collins, Geoffrey Moore, Clayton Christensen, not to forget Peter Drucker, Warren Bennis, Tom Peters amongst others, offer great insights and wisdom. With due respect to Morten Hansen, as I have been more familiar with Jim Collins as an author or co-author, I will continue to review as if this is written by Jim Collins, but the due credit goes to both the co-authors. There are chances that in my exhilarated state of finding such a wonderful book, I may be exaggerating the virtues of the wisdom and knowledge found in the book.

One of the greatest aspect of Jim Collins is that the topic is almost exhaustively researched for long years by 'a small army' of researchers as is the case here. Additionally, the 'topic chooses the authors', so is the case here as was with 'Good to Great'! This is evident in the acknowledgement itself.

The first chapter on uncertainty is aptly titled as 'Thriving in Uncertainty'. Please note the preposition is not 'on' but it is 'in'. In fact, the thrust of the study is not just identifying the factors which contributed to 'greatness' not but in extremely chaotic uncertain times. As the subtitle suggests, the study is about thriving despite all uncertainty, chaos and (mostly, bad) luck! Though in my view, 'Thriving on Chaos', (That was the title of a book by Tom Peters almost a decade back.) is much bigger challenge as the leader is adept and agile enough to navigate through the chaos to achieve success. Definitely, the leaders who thrive 'in' uncertainty will also thrive on chaos, someday! The companies chosen for the study are based on the following three characteristics:
1. The companies performed minimum 10X over at least 15 years over the performance of the companies listed in general stock markets.
2. The companies achieved 10X returns through chaotic conditions in their business environments and
3. The companies started their journey being at vulnerable position.

These are fairly tough criteria to measure the greatness of the organizations. But the authors have a reason. If a great mountaineer is compared with a normal person on leisurely walk, the distinguishing characteristics of the great mountaineer may not be visible. Similar sentiments are offered in Toyota Way literature about when the water is gone, then the river or sea bed offers the true picture. When the conditions are conducive and good; and the challenges are not too demanding, everybody performs! Thus the authors end up with only seven companies, though they started with nearly 20,400 companies. These 7 companies, delivered 600X within 30 years (generally between 1972 and 2002). As an example, Southwest Airlines offered 1,200X value within the 30 years period. The companies chosen are much better in performance than the business publishing darlings like Walmart, GE, Johnson n Johnson, Walt Disney...! The authors also offer disclaimers about the 'dynastic eras' in the companies, they may or might have faded after a leader/ series of leaders have left but the learning from the era/s is/are critical here. In fact, they point to Apple contrasting between John Sculley's era and Steve Jobs' second innings! The companies thus chosen are Amgen, Biomet, Intel, Microsoft, Progressive Insurance, Southwest Airlines and Stryker. Intel, Microsoft, Southwest Airlines; and in the comparison companies Apple and AMD, which are deliberately pitted as contrast against Microsoft and Intel, respectively; these are the familiar companies to me.

Giving a brief background on the earlier work and concepts thus derived; the authors talk about the bigger quest to find new truths. However they assure that the earlier concepts remain relevant, those concepts are, namely, Hedegehog Concept, Stockdale Paradox, BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal), First-who-then-what and Flywheel. Level 5 Leadership finds a critically important role in this book too! According to the authors, earlier the thrust was on humility of the Level 5 Leadership; now the thrust is on the enduring quest driving the Level 5 Leadership.

The companies under study are aptly named as 10Xers, the chapter introducing the companies and the introduction to the key findings takes off with Roald Amundsen's quote on victory which is akin to Sun Tzu's quote on victory for the general who knows self, the terrain and the enemy. 

The study is about the epic quests to achieve greatness. To glean the learning, it is aptly supported by Roald Amundsen's quest of the South Pole contrasted with Robert Falcon Scott's failure. On the way, we also come across similar, yet not so much celebrated expeditions. Amundsen, while preparing himself for the expedition went to extreme extents. Some examples are riding the bicycle for 2,000 miles, eating raw dolphins to familiarize with food if no choice exists, interning with Eskimos to  handle dogs and acquainting with the Eskimos to  leverage their life experiences and learning passed on through generations. The intensity and empirical creativity of Amundsen was not matched by Scott, who chose ponies to drag the sledges. The ponies had at least two disadvantages over dogs, the threat of ice formation on skin between hair and normal food of grass v/s meat for the dogs.The motor sledges used by Scott were not thoroughly tested for the extreme conditions of the South Pole. In terms of buffers, positions of depots, guideposts, etc., while Amundsen was prepared for the worst and Scott was lacking. To give an example, whereas Amundsen had food buffer of 3 tonnes for 5 men; Scott had 1 tonne for 17 men! Amundsen had planned the depots and buffers in such a way, even if the men missed all the meticulously guided  depots they could still go 100 miles. In a dramatic contrast, Scott's team had tragic deaths just a few miles away from one of their depots! Amundsen reached the South Pole on the 15th December 1911 and Scott reached the South Pole on the 17th January 1912!

The authors offer critical insights for the winners on the backdrop of Amundsen's and Scott's expeditions. They had almost the same circumstances. They had the same share of good days and bad days. The outcomes were exactly opposite! The critical insight, there were differences in behaviors but not in the circumstances. The great ones are no more creative, visionary, charismatic, ambitious, lucky, risk seeking, heroic than the ones who failed. The difference lie in the behaviors! After establishing the effect of behaviour rather than the circumstances, the authors proceed to the findings of the study.

Markets swing to extremes based on various factors. Progressive Insurance's market value used to swing to extremities. The solution by Peter Lewis, the CEO of Progressive Insurance was to bring out monthly financial statements. A proactive behavior to rein in the conditions beyond control can come only to the minds which are on the quest to address fundamental issues. These minds have the capability to see through the layers of mechanisms and come out with solutions. In addition, they should have the capability to execute their idea flawlessly and consistently in a sustained manner. Only, then the conditions beyond control can be tamed. This can be only possible by the ones who can demonstrate 'fanatic discipline', which, others feel is not required in the prevailing conditions. The parallels which come to my mind which are not in this book are: Jamshed Tata's efforts in setting up the Steel Plant in Jamshedpur, which is Tata Steel now; the same may be said about JRD Tata's Tata Airlines which became Air India later, Amazon's Jeff Bezos continued thrust on investments and Google's Page n Brin's Google Labs. Such fanatic discipline leads to consistency in action which in turn sets the pace for victory march unhindered by the forces beyond control. The authors could find similar discipline in Herb Kelleher, who strongly emphasized on 'Warrior Spirit'! The authors find that fanatic discipline is shaped by values, purpose and severe performance standards. Definitely, such a behavior diverges from normal behavior!

To highlight empirical creativity shown by 10Xers the authors take up Andy Grove's personal experience of addressing the issue of his own health condition, when he was diagnosed of having cancer. Unlike other patients, Andy Grove addressed his issue by learning everything about it. He arrived at his own solution to address his condition. Andy Grove's efforts highlight his quest to address the issue by going to the core of it, observing the prevailing practices and devising his own solution on the basis of the current incomplete understanding. These basic characteristics of Andy Grove's efforts highlight empirical creativity of 10Xers. In the case of Roald Amundsen's expedition to South Pole, Bay of Whales was never considered the appropriate base for the expedition. Amundsen arrived at the conclusion to make it as the base. I noticed in wikipedia that, in fact, Scott also was offered to make Bay of Whales as his base, which was declined. Such empirical creativity based on much deeper pragmatic considerations may sound contrary to prevailing practices; many times, such creativity determines the winners. 10Xers displayed empirical creativity repeatedly.

For me productive paranoia has been a great concept, thanks to Andy Grove's 'Only the Paranoid Survive'. The beauty of 'Great by Choice', is that the concepts are rigorously studied and well supported with the facts from diverse backgrounds. Productive paranoia has been highlighted using Microsoft in '80s. When the underwriters and valuers approached Microsoft in its heydays for IPO, they were wondering how to make the management appreciate the risks of business. But they were surprised by the candor of Steve Ballmer in raising his own concerns on various risks. In fact, one of the team members considered Ballmer as a nightmare hero! The authors contrast Sculley's 9 weeks vacation soon after he set Apple in order! Bill Gates' own apprehensions about preparedness for internet era is well documented. In my view, such paranoia will keep the 10Xers on edge always for the events around, which in turn, makes them extremely sensitive to the signals which portend disruptive changes. The sensitivity enables them to prepare the organization  to arrive at appropriate adaptive methods, as the disruptive changes evolve. As the disruptive changes are getting more frequent; such paranoia, which is quite healthy for 10Xers, is needed by the organizations.

Level 5 Ambition, which has been introduced in Good to Great is the driving force behind the 10Xers. The Level 5 Leaders are deeply committed to a much bigger purpose than short term gains like quarterly performances, fluctuations in market cap, their own incomes,... though they are the basic necessities for survival. The authors emphasize that Dave Miller of Biomet was one of the CEOs of high performance companies with the least compensation.  His aversion to greed is highlighted. The level 5 ambition is summed up in Gordon Moore's 'What are we in it for?' quote. The 10Xer leaders are driven more by changing the world or a bigger purpose.

The key aspects of the book are the facts driven rigorous analyses and appropriate case studies to highlight to drive the concepts to the readers. The data from the research are shared with the readers at the end of the book.

The data for fanatic discipline provides insights into the wide fluctuation of performance in comparison companies and consistency in 10Xers. In fact, the data gives an insight about the causes of such divergence among the companies. Whereas 10Xers seem to have developed processes and systems to ensure consistent performance irrespective of the changes outside. Eventually, the genetic make up of the organization is defined in 10Xers case. The comparison companies seem to be driven either by individual leaders and their idiosyncrasies or by the compulsions. Additionally, comparison companies miss the opportunity to institutionalize the learning and consequent capability building.

The data for empirical creativity points to pragmatism, data driven approach, deliberate proactive decision making and near flawless execution  in 10Xers. Comparison companies, in contrast, seem to be driven by compulsion or hubris while taking plunge in new ventures. Adherence to deliberate decision making is missing and there are far fewer flawless executions by comparison companies. There seems to be failure with respect to institutionalizing improvements within the comparison companies.

The productive paranoia highlights the 10Xers avoidance of high risks both qualitatively and quantitatively. The comparison companies demonstrate tendency to embrace higher risks and also fail badly on execution aspects. 10Xers seem to have mastered the art of choosing the right risks and also deliver well!

The Level 5 leadership data emphasizes adoption and adherence of Systematic, Methodical and Consistent (SMaC) recipe within the 10Xers. Additionally, there are fewer changes in the SMaC recipe in 10Xers. The comparison companies' adoption or/and adherence to SMaC recipe is relatively lower and the changes in SMaC recipe is higher. This points out to the fact that SMaC recipe development itself is based on shallower truths and additionally the will to execute well and wherewithal are lacking in comparison companies.

In this part, the overview of the book is offered. Later, we will go deeper into the concepts. The reading of the book takes us deeper into the psyche of 10Xers and the leaders. I personally looked forward to deeper analyses and insights into Level 5 Leadership. I feel that, there is a need for an exhaustive book on Level 5 Leadership and I hope that Jim Collins will take care of that. Good to Great offered the right habits for the organizations to achieve greatness starting from being 'good enough'. Great by Choice, goes deeper and offers more fundamental aspects of great organizations, namely, Fanatic Discipline, Empirical Creativity, Productive Paranoia and the central drive, Level 5 Leadership. In my view, Level 5 Ambition of the leaders is the bed rock of emergence of great companies.
                                           
Journey Unto Greatness Demystified!: A Review of 'Great by Choice' by Jim Collins and Morten T Hansen Part I 

Journey Unto Greatness Demystified!: A Review of 'Great by Choice' by Jim Collins and Morten T Hansen Part II

Journey Unto Greatness Demystified!: A Review of 'Great by Choice' by Jim Collins and Morten T Hansen Part III

Journey Unto Greatness Demystified!: A Review of 'Great by Choice' by Jim Collins and Morten T Hansen Part IV  

Journey Unto Greatness Demystified!: A Review of 'Great by Choice' by Jim Collins and Morten T Hansen Part V