Jim Collins

Life

James C. Collins was born in 1958. He studied at Stanford University, where he later taught at the Graduate School of Business. In the 1990s he set up his own research laboratory in Boulder, Colorado, where he conducts multi-year comparative studies of companies with teams of students.

Works

• Built to Last (1994, with Jerry Porras) - on visionary companies that combine a core ideology with a drive for progress.
• Good to Great (2001) - see Good to Great and Level 5 leadership.
• Good to Great and the Social Sectors (2005) - applying the findings to social sector organisations, where leaders often have little formal power and must rely on “legislative” leadership - building consensus.
• How the Mighty Fall (2009) - five stages of organisational decline, beginning with hubris born of success.
• Great by Choice (2011, with Morten Hansen) - on leadership in uncertainty.

Key ideas

• The Level 5 leader - humility and professional will.
• First who, then what - the right people first, then the direction.
• The Stockdale Paradox - faith in ultimate victory combined with confronting the brutal facts.
• The hedgehog concept - focus on what you can be best at, what drives your mission and what you are passionate about.

See also humility.