A 'Good to Great' Second Act
In the new booklet, Collins explains how nonprofits can adapt his principles. Drawing on examples such as the Girl Scouts and the Cleveland Orchestra, he explains tactics to cajole rather than boss around a low-paid volunteer work force. (Teach for America, for instance, uses a highly selective application process to give its program cachet despite the low pay.) He explains how clearly articulated goals and formal measurement can replace financial metrics. (Example: the NYPD's obsessive tracking of crime statistics to measure its performance.) There will be no glitzy media tour to sell it—if people want it, he figures, they'll know where to find it.
A 'Good to Great' Second Act
Jim Collins's best seller is that rare business book that finds an audience beyond corporations. Now he's got a sequel for organizations not ruled by the bottom line.
Dec. 12, 2005 issue - In certain professions, there's a standard set of ambitions. Every TV star wants to be in movies. Every teeny-bopper starlet wants to record an album. And among business-book authors, there's a universal desire to write a crossover hit, a tome that appeals to folks who prefer Us Weekly to The Wall Street Journal and couldn't tell a widget from a wedgie. And in early 2001, Jim Collins hoped for that kind of breakthrough. Collins was already a superstar among the M.B.A. set thanks to "Built to Last," the 1994 book he'd coauthored that had spent years on best-seller lists. But in 2001 he was due to release his next book, "Good to Great." He knew it'd get plenty of attention from business junkies. But what he really hoped for, he told NEWSWEEK before the title hit bookstores, was that it'd be read by school principals and church pastors. After years of helping businesses boost profits, Collins hoped to teach America's do-gooders to do even better.
He's getting his wish. "Good to Great" remains a fixture on best-seller lists more than four years after publication. But more important, it's found an audience among folks who rarely buy business books. Today Collins estimates that nearly half his speaking invitations are from the nonprofit sector. But many have had trouble applying his wisdom to their ventures, which can't measure success by stock price or offer big raises to motivate employees. So last month Collins self-published a 35-page booklet, available for under $10 through online booksellers like Amazon, called "Good to Great and the Social Sectors."...
posted by Whitney Tilson at 9:33 AM
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