Transcript
Speaker: Welcome to Optimal Equestrian, a podcast where I dive into how to optimize ourselves, our horses, and our businesses.
Speaker: Please support the show by following or subscribing to my show and follow me on Instagram at Optimal Equestrian.
Speaker: You can share the show with anyone who you think might benefit or enjoy it.
Speaker: Now let's get into the episode.
Speaker: Welcome to episode 11.
Speaker: Today we're going to talk all about how to turn your good company into a great company.
Speaker: And the research for this episode comes from the book titled Good to Great by Jim Collins.
Speaker: He spent five years researching companies that went from this good to great, had this shift.
Speaker: And the book is a summary of all the lessons that he learned from his research.
Speaker: So we're going to see how we can take those lessons and apply it to our own equestrian businesses to create or transform them into great companies.
Speaker: Now, I'm sure you've heard the saying, good is the enemy of great.
Speaker: And sure, having a good company, being a good writer, those can create a decent life.
Speaker: They can allow you some freedom and give you some pride in your work.
Speaker: However, leveling it up to a great company is for those of us who are never satisfied, have a desire to strive for more, need a purpose and true fulfillment.
Speaker: Few can attain this, and that's where the real allure lies, to strive for greatness.
Speaker: So let's talk a little bit more about Jim Collins' research and how he came up with these systems and how he identified the things that really made a difference in these two different companies.
Speaker: So he went around and identified companies that made the leap from good results to great results, and then they had to sustain it for at least 15 years.
Speaker: They then compared those greats to others who either failed to make that leap or failed to sustain it.
Speaker: The companies had to have a 15-year span of stock returns at or below the general stock market.
Speaker: And then they had to have a punctuated transition point and then start accumulating returns at at least three times the market for at least 15 years.
Speaker: The reason he chose 15 years is because that would rule out the one-hit wonders or those companies that got lucky breaks.
Speaker: And that would usually exceed the average tenure of most CEOs.
Speaker: So it's not just like this one guy came in and it was him that was the only force on it.
Speaker: So then they collected all this data, they categorized it, they interviewed most of the executives and they analyzed the data.
Speaker: Then as a team, they all sat down and they would debate, question, discuss, resolve, and then debate again on what all the data meant.
Speaker: And a couple examples of companies that he used that went from this good to great had those changes are companies like Walgreens, Circuit City, Fannie Mae, Gillette, Kroger, Pitney Bowes, and Wells Fargo.
Speaker: Those are some of the most notable ones.
Speaker: So now let's dive into what they concluded and how we can apply that to the equestrian industry.
Speaker: So the first and what I think is the most important, because everything's going to lead down off of this, is having a level five leader.
Speaker: So level five leadership is a concept that was developed by Jim Collins.
Speaker: And then John Maxwell also discusses the five different levels of leadership.
Speaker: So if you're interested in learning more about that, then you can look that up.
Speaker: But the gist of it is that a level five leader is someone who blends extreme personal humility with intense professional will.
Speaker: They're self-effacing individuals who display a fierce resolve to do whatever is needed to be done to make the company great.
Speaker: They're going to be modest and willful, humble, and fearless.
Speaker: Level 5 leaders channel their ego away from themselves and into the larger goal of building a great company.
Speaker: It's not that Level 5 leaders have no ego or self-interest.
Speaker: They're incredibly ambitious people, but their ambition is first and foremost the institution or the company and not themselves.
Speaker: So they talk about the success of a company in we terms instead of I terms.
Speaker: So for the equestrian world, maybe this would be giving credit to the horse or your mentors, trainers, grooms.
Speaker: There's an entire team that goes around.
Speaker: one individual rider or one individual company.
Speaker: I mean, it's not just one person that's training, taking care of the horses, the farriers, vets.
Speaker: I mean, you all know that there's a huge team around it.
Speaker: And so constantly thinking about what is best for the horse and for the company that will allow us to showcase and develop the horse's talent and the rider's talent and the ability of your facility to care for these animals in the best way that we can be.
Speaker: Having that mentality of the we mentality is going to be the very first step and a necessity.
Speaker: So some words that describe level five leaders include modest, humble, quiet, reserved, shy, gracious, mild-mannered, self-effacing, and understated.
Speaker: They're going to be seemingly ordinary people who are quietly producing extraordinary results.
Speaker: So these are not your big personalities that are booming.
Speaker: You know when they come in that they take over a room.
Speaker: They're bossing people around.
Speaker: That's not going to be these people.
Speaker: Quite the opposite, actually.
Speaker: Some, by contrast, many of the CEOs who could not produce great companies or couldn't keep them great had characteristics, like I said, of being loud, larger than life, beating their chest, egotistical.
Speaker: Now being humble is only half of the equation.
Speaker: The other half is to have a ferocious resolve and an almost stoic determination to do whatever needs to be done to make the company great.
Speaker: They're not gonna be too good to clean stalls.
Speaker: They're gonna go in, get their hands dirty, and do whatever is needed.
Speaker: They're ambitious for the company and not themselves.
Speaker: So they're going to also be the type of people who set their successors up for success versus a level four leader who would set their successors up for failure to make themselves look better when they're gone.
Speaker: In the horse world, this may manifest as wanting the next owner or rider of the horse to fail or not do as well with the horse because of their own ego to show how good or talented of a trainer or rider they are.
Speaker: Instead of maybe thinking that the next...
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Speaker: Instead of maybe thinking that the next rider's system or personality or the way that they care for their horses may actually suit that horse better and they may have more success and be able to bring out more talent in those horses.
Speaker: I love this quote from the book.
Speaker: He says, level five leaders are fanatically driven, infected with an incurable need to produce results.
Speaker: They will sell the mills or fire their brother if that's what it takes to make the company great.
Speaker: I think that just really sums up how fanatical they are, how driven and how they're so focused on results.
Speaker: Another interesting fact he brings up in the book is that 10 out of 11 of the CEOs came from inside the company.
Speaker: And so they have a culture of high standards and discipline that puts quality people in roles and sets a company up for success, especially when promoting from within.
Speaker: And I think that promoting within the company is a really undervalued tool.
Speaker: And it really, it shows you what those person's work ethics are.
Speaker: They're all in on your mission and how you all work.
Speaker: And I think that that's just a really...
Speaker: exceptional way to create and you're kind of testing the waters out before you put this person in a high position so you know what their work ethic is you know what to expect from them and it's just a easy way to cultivate and make sure that your goals with the company and how you treat the horses train the horses etc is instilled all the way throughout the company
Speaker: Jim also points out in the book that the successful CEOs often say that they were just lucky opposed to the comparison execs who attributed their lack of success to bad luck and difficulties in their environment.
Speaker: And so they're blaming on outside factors opposed to giving credit to outside factors.
Speaker: And this is basically just the difference, I think, of pessimistic versus optimistic people.
Speaker: So as equestrians, are we blaming our failures on outside forces that we can't afford the nice horse?
Speaker: We don't have time or resources as this other person.
Speaker: We all know that our industry requires a lot of grit, determination.
Speaker: You have to socialize and network and you have to work really hard and ride whatever horse you can and use whatever resources that you have.
Speaker: And so you can educate yourself from the internet, clinics, mentors, books, turn any obstacle that you're facing into a blessing.
Speaker: There's always some way that you can go out, learn from those failures, use whatever resources you have and network.
Speaker: Now, this next concept he brings up is going to transition us into the next bullet point.
Speaker: But I want to read this quote from the book.
Speaker: He says, the executives who ignited the transformation from good to great did not first figure out where to drive the bus and then get the people to take it there.
Speaker: No, they first got the right people in the bus and the wrong people off the bus and then figured out where to drive it.
Speaker: And I just love this bus analogy because really, if you think about it, if the people got on the bus because of where it's going, it's going to be really hard to change directions with your company if you need to.
Speaker: Opposed to if they get on the bus because of who else was on the bus.
Speaker: So if they like you, if they like the people in the company and they stand behind it.
Speaker: Those people, they will do anything for them.
Speaker: It doesn't really matter where the bus is going.
Speaker: It's going to be successful no matter what.
Speaker: Having the right people on your bus also greatly solves the problem of how to motivate and manage people because if you have the right people, they usually don't need to be tightly managed or fired up to do their job properly.
Speaker: And in our industry, it's a lot of physical manual labor that's going to require hard work.
Speaker: And you cannot just motivate indefinitely.
Speaker: They're going to have to have that themselves.
Speaker: So the right people will allow you to focus on where your best efforts are and with much less stress.
Speaker: This will create happier horses, happier people, and better results, we hope.
Speaker: So kind of in summary, I was just kind of thinking of how to apply this to the equestrian industry.
Speaker: And so like, what if instead of all trainers just kind of having their own farms splitting up, they instead just share resources, everybody like you,
Speaker: If you're a young trainer, you start out at the bottom and you can learn from them, rise from within.
Speaker: Just if we structure everything like a company would, clients get divided up.
Speaker: Trainers can bounce ideas off each other, especially if one has a specialty.
Speaker: Then you send them like this one starts the horses.
Speaker: This one jumps them.
Speaker: This one does dressage, whatever.
Speaker: And then they all have smaller strings.
Speaker: They can pitch in more.
Speaker: They can show together.
Speaker: You can cut costs by hauling together, sharing insurance.
Speaker: The old saying, a rising tide lifts all boats.
Speaker: I think that's really important to think about with this, especially with how expensive our industry is.
Speaker: And just strive to have a reputation of employing great people even when they leave.
Speaker: And this all comes from instilling a philosophy into your employees, your writers, and that's going to be something that they take with them forever.
Speaker: I went to William Woods University, and one thing that I really love about their teaching was they always said that this is a William Woods way.
Speaker: When you go somewhere else, you're going to learn their way.
Speaker: And when I was then in a hiring position at a vet clinic, we would get a lot of students from William Woods or recent graduates from William Woods that would apply.
Speaker: And we always almost hired those people because they just produced and like had a reputation of having.
Speaker: being great employees.
Speaker: They were always hardworking.
Speaker: They were malleable.
Speaker: They liked to learn whichever way you wanted to teach them.
Speaker: And it just made it really easy when you're looking at applications like, oh, they went and worked for this person or they went to this school.
Speaker: They're usually going to produce really good people.
Speaker: So if you have that reputation in the equine industry, that would be a fantastic thing.
Speaker: And then also, if you know of people who have that reputation, you can hire off of them.
Speaker: It just makes for really symbiotic and great industry to pass people around and help bring everybody up.
Speaker: So the second big concept he talks about, which we've already kind of introduced, is hiring the right people.
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Speaker: already kind of introduced is hiring the right people.
Speaker: The first who is a very simple idea to grasp.
Speaker: And then when you try to implement, it's very difficult thing to actually implement.
Speaker: And most don't do it well.
Speaker: The Fannie Mae executive David Maxwell told officers and interviews how difficult and demanding the job would be and advise them to think carefully before accepting the position.
Speaker: And he always told them that they would not be hated if they declined the position.
Speaker: There's a quote from the book that says, Maxwell made it absolutely clear that there would only be seats for A players who were going to put forth A plus effort.
Speaker: And if you weren't up for it, you better get off the bus and get off now.
Speaker: So the key to implementing this as a manager is being able to evaluate people and see how and where they would best fit into your organization.
Speaker: So some hiring tips that he gives, he calls it how to be rigorous, not ruthless, is when you're in doubt about hiring someone, don't hire them.
Speaker: Keep looking for the right person.
Speaker: It's going to be much easier to not hire them than have to deal with the stresses of hiring them.
Speaker: Then they're not performing.
Speaker: You have to do reviews and strikes and all the way until just eventually you're going to fire them.
Speaker: He also says that when you know that you need to make a personnel change, you need to act immediately.
Speaker: So the moment that you start feeling like you need to tightly manage a person, you've made a hiring mistake.
Speaker: He gives this quote in the book about a scenario where we've hired the wrong person.
Speaker: He says, yet we wait, delay, we try alternatives, we give a third and a fourth chance.
Speaker: But we hope that the situation will improve.
Speaker: We invest time into trying to properly manage a person.
Speaker: We build little systems to compensate for his shortcomings and so forth.
Speaker: But the situation doesn't improve.
Speaker: When we go home, we find our energy diverted by thinking or talking to our spouse about that person.
Speaker: Worse, all the time and energy we spend on that one person siphons energy away from developing and working with the right people.
Speaker: We continue to stumble along until the person leaves on their own to our great sense of relief, or we finally act also to our great sense of relief.
Speaker: Meanwhile, our best people wonder what took so long.
Speaker: And I just had to write that quote down word for word because...
Speaker: It felt so relatable when I was reading this.
Speaker: Like, I've been there.
Speaker: I've made the wrong choices.
Speaker: And you're just writing them up, waiting, hoping that they quit.
Speaker: And, I mean, with the HR stuff these days, it's just such a nightmare trying to deal with those situations.
Speaker: Someone who you know isn't right for the company, doesn't have their heart in it, isn't giving it their all.
Speaker: So he says, if you're trying to decide on whether someone is right or not, which I'm sure at this point, you know, if they are not, but ask yourself two questions.
Speaker: One, would I hire them again?
Speaker: Two, if they said that they were leaving today, would you be disappointed or secretly relieved?
Speaker: Another personnel tip he gives, instead, a lot of companies put their best people on their biggest problems.
Speaker: And he says that's the wrong way to deal with it because it just is almost more like a punishment to them.
Speaker: Like, I know you're good at your job, but I need you to like handle this big problem.
Speaker: It's just a nightmare.
Speaker: He said, instead, make sure that you're giving those people the biggest opportunities, places where
Speaker: they can have the most growth and bring in big clients or give like give them the best horses to ride or stuff like that.
Speaker: Not the horses that are constantly a problem and you know that they're not really going to go anywhere but you just want their help to because they're a good rider but still give them the biggest opportunities not always the biggest problems.
Speaker: The third big bullet point that he noticed was that the successful companies would face the brutal facts about their company.
Speaker: So they want to know what all their shortcomings were.
Speaker: They want to turn over all the rocks to see what was beneath them instead of just sticking their head in the sand and not addressing those problems.
Speaker: So the top leaders who led with force and still fear into their employees.
Speaker: This makes employees less likely to speak up unless that they know the leader will like their idea.
Speaker: This is a recipe for mediocrity.
Speaker: So as a leader, what you need to do is make an environment where your employees want to bring problems to you.
Speaker: They want to show you like what the shortcomings are.
Speaker: If there's an issue over here, that's not quite big yet, but they're going to
Speaker: Solve it before it gets big.
Speaker: But you have to create an environment and be a leader that's open and receptive.
Speaker: And you're not going to bite their head off if they come to you about this.
Speaker: These are all things that need to be instilled in your company from the very beginning, from the bottom layer all the way up.
Speaker: It's the fabric of your company.
Speaker: So how do you build this climate within your company?
Speaker: First, you need to lead with questions, not answers.
Speaker: Use questions only as a way to gain understanding, never as a form of manipulation or placing blame or putting others down.
Speaker: So go out and ask your employees questions.
Speaker: Ask them answers.
Speaker: how everything's going, if there's a way that you can do it better, like how's this horse feel today?
Speaker: I mean, just going out, asking questions, that's going to immediately open the door for them to express anything that they notice.
Speaker: Two, engage in dialogue and debate, not coercion.
Speaker: So debates are a good thing.
Speaker: There is a thing as healthy conflict and you need to use this as a search for the best answers.
Speaker: So when you ask them, is there a better way that we can
Speaker: do this, they might give you a suggestion and you can, I'm sure that you've had years of experience where you can say, well, we've tried that in the past.
Speaker: These are the problems with it, but be open, go back and forth.
Speaker: And maybe they'll see that the way you were doing it before there's, if you change this little thing and it'll all work out better, but yeah,
Speaker: Just being open to changing the way you do things, open to discussion and figuring out how we can make a better environment for the horses, the riders, the boarders, whatever it is.
Speaker: Number three, he says to conduct autopsies, but without blame.
Speaker: So again, if something did go wrong, this is where you're going to have an open discussion about why they didn't work out.
Speaker: So this is an after-the-fact thing, really dissected, how did this go wrong?
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Speaker: really dissect it.
Speaker: How did this go wrong?
Speaker: What can we do better next time?
Speaker: How can we prevent it from ever going wrong again?
Speaker: Those kinds of things.
Speaker: So just creating autopsies around the failures of the company.
Speaker: Number four, this one is a little more difficult, but he says to build in red flag mechanisms.
Speaker: And so both the good and the great companies had almost identical information when it came to the industries.
Speaker: But the difference usually lied in turning that information into something that couldn't be ignored.
Speaker: So to combat this, he says to use these red flag mechanisms, which...
Speaker: He says they're good for leaders who are not yet level five.
Speaker: So like maybe you're a level four trying to get to that level five leadership.
Speaker: But also they're good for the charismatic level five leaders.
Speaker: So for example, this is not making sense so far.
Speaker: So for example, he...
Speaker: studied this company, Granite Rock, who instituted a short pay policy where the customer could, at their discretion, decide what to pay on an invoice.
Speaker: So they would get the invoice.
Speaker: They didn't like something.
Speaker: They didn't agree to it or they didn't like how much it was, how the work was done, whatever.
Speaker: It doesn't matter.
Speaker: They didn't like this item on an invoice.
Speaker: They simply circled it, wrote why they did not agree with it, and write them a check for the balance minus that charge.
Speaker: So basically he was giving them free reign to pay him basically whatever they wanted, which I think is a really risky thing to do.
Speaker: But anyways, it gave the company valuable insight into what their customers wanted, valued, and then the customers would then inform them of their unhappiness before they
Speaker: they ever lost that customer altogether.
Speaker: So I guess I'm sure there were some stipulations around this, like you could only do it once or whatever, but I guess it is a, it's a, this is a red flag mechanism that shows them an unhappy customer and where their downfalls are before they actually lose the customer.
Speaker: And so I think that this is kind of a difficult thing to implement in the question.
Speaker: I mean, I guess you could do the same thing with the invoices, but at the end of the day, the horse's like basic care has to be covered.
Speaker: They can't just say like, oh, no, I'm not paying their board this month.
Speaker: I'm not happy.
Speaker: Like that's not acceptable.
Speaker: So I don't really know how we would apply it.
Speaker: Maybe you all have some better ideas, but just something to think about in case that's something that you want to try to think about and implement.
Speaker: And in case you're losing a bunch of customers and you want to find out and get feedback from them on where they're unhappy, you could also probably just have open discussions with your clients, asking them just like you would with your employees and
Speaker: Asking them questions, seeing how they're, if they're happy with everything, where you can improve, all that kind of stuff.
Speaker: I think that's probably a much healthier way to do it.
Speaker: But he gives those red flag mechanisms there if you want to implement that.
Speaker: The next concept he noticed in the good to great companies is what he calls the hedgehog concept.
Speaker: So he says, are you a hedgehog or a fox?
Speaker: The fox knows many things.
Speaker: The hedgehog knows one big thing.
Speaker: Hedgehogs take a complex world or idea and simplify it.
Speaker: So basically, this is a strategy where you take three circles.
Speaker: The three circles are what you can be the best in the world at.
Speaker: The second is what drives your economic engine.
Speaker: So how can you effectively generate income?
Speaker: And then the third is what are you deeply passionate about?
Speaker: So in order for these companies to be successful, they had to have a fully developed concept that fit into those three circles.
Speaker: So the companies that went from this good to great jump, they all founded their strategic, their business strategy on those three key dimensions.
Speaker: And then they also simplified and put it into clear, concise ways.
Speaker: mission statement that would guide all their efforts.
Speaker: So you have to ask yourself what you potentially can be the best in the world at.
Speaker: You also need to know what you cannot be the best in the world at.
Speaker: So don't do that.
Speaker: Figure out what you can be the best in the world at.
Speaker: Simplify the idea and make it a mantra that echoes throughout your company.
Speaker: So your ego must be taken out of the equation because it will just lead you down endless paths that won't lead you to being the best.
Speaker: So as equestrians, what's your talent?
Speaker: Do you produce really quality horses from babies?
Speaker: Maybe you're really good at breeding, creating good horses.
Speaker: Maybe you're really good at improving the jump or the gates in a horse.
Speaker: Maybe it's actually explaining riding to other people.
Speaker: So you need to figure out what you are so good at and then figure out how can you make money on that.
Speaker: So maybe you make an online school or write a book or maybe you just focus on breeding and you produce as many quality horses as you can.
Speaker: Maybe you're good at helping other riders get that competitive edge.
Speaker: So then you really make a name for yourself as a dog.
Speaker: coach in the show world, but every business decision should be analyzed, questioned, and debated within those three circles as your guide.
Speaker: Now, his thoughts on business after researching these good to great companies is that you should channel your resources into only one or a couple arenas.
Speaker: So you're going to figure out what you're best at and you're going to invest highly in that one thing that you're good at.
Speaker: So you're going to have a really undiversified portfolio.
Speaker: But if you're right, that means that you're going to be super successful.
Speaker: The last concept kind of brings it all together.
Speaker: He says that the good to great companies built a culture of discipline.
Speaker: they would build a culture around the idea of freedom and responsibility within a framework.
Speaker: So for example, if you take a pilot, they have a strict checklist and protocol, but if they can't land due to weather or they need to land early, they have their freedom to do what's needed.
Speaker: So your employees need to know this is how we normally do things, but if a problem arises, this is our goal and our ethics and where we're headed.
Speaker: And so I'm just going to make this decision.
Speaker: I don't need to,
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Speaker: make this decision.
Speaker: I don't need to go over and talk to everybody, but we're just going to quickly make this decision, put us right back on path and do what's needed to be do to do.
Speaker: They fill that culture with self-discipline people who are willing to go to extreme lengths to fulfill their responsibilities.
Speaker: So they have the right people and they're all in on the goal and they're all in on you and where you want to take your company.
Speaker: They don't confuse a culture of discipline with a tyrannical disciplinarian.
Speaker: So everyone comes in, works hard, but there's not one boss sitting over their top laying the hammer down.
Speaker: They also adhere with great consistency to the hedgehog concept.
Speaker: They exercise an almost religious focus on the intersection of those three circles.
Speaker: So they know where our specialties lie, where the funding is going, and how we're going to do it.
Speaker: They also know what we're not going to do, and they're going to unplug anything that doesn't fit into the three circles.
Speaker: So in this book, he brings up these five different ways that we're going to make our companies good to great.
Speaker: But he starts with that level five leader.
Speaker: And I really think that everything else just stems off of that and how you implement and build your company from the beginning.
Speaker: And if you didn't do that and you already have a business, go back and figure out your hedgehog concept.
Speaker: Think of things that you can like submission statements that you can instill and repeat to your employees that they're going to have this, the same ethos as you.
Speaker: They're going to ride by you.
Speaker: They know what your goals are, where you're taking the company.
Speaker: how you want to treat the horses.
Speaker: And even though we aren't building Fortune 500 companies, you want to be able to go to a show, enjoy a weekend off or vacation, knowing that your horses or your business is taken care of and that everything's going the way that you want it to go.
Speaker: The final thing that really that he uses, and I think it's a great image to think of, is imagine a 5,000 pound, 20 foot high flywheel.
Speaker: So this big round thing, it's heavy.
Speaker: Your job is to get it spinning.
Speaker: So at first it takes a lot of hard effort.
Speaker: You're pulling really hard, making hardly any movement.
Speaker: Eventually you just start pushing more and more and it takes less effort and you're going faster.
Speaker: And if you stop, it still goes.
Speaker: I mean, you still have to keep pushing to keep it going, but you're creating this momentum and eventually it hardly takes any effort.
Speaker: But you can't exactly pinpoint which push made the biggest change.
Speaker: And that's kind of the same concept that he talks about with building a company.
Speaker: So at first, it's going to be really difficult.
Speaker: You're really feeling like you're sludging in the mud, that you can't get anything going.
Speaker: And you start implementing these ideas.
Speaker: Things aren't working.
Speaker: You're figuring things out, fixing them.
Speaker: And you start making these decisions and things start going better and they're going better and things are easier.
Speaker: And now you have better people working for you, the right people, and they're making it spin even faster.
Speaker: And you all have the same goal that you're working towards.
Speaker: And I just think that that image that he gives of that flywheel is just a really important thing.
Speaker: It's really something that I think about often when you're kind of burnt out, you're over it, you just want a break, but you know that, like, I think they say the first five years are the hardest.
Speaker: Like, it's so hard in the beginning, and then it just gets easier and easier and easier.
Speaker: And I just, that's sometimes the only thing that ever gets me through the day.
Speaker: But yeah, I like also that he says that there's not one big turning point or one push that you did that made the difference.
Speaker: It's the accumulation of actions and decisions over time that built on each other.
Speaker: He also says that you can't wait for people to get on board.
Speaker: Just start moving the wheel and only once the outcome is visible will people jump on board and the enthusiasm will grow.
Speaker: He does say in comparison, the companies that did not make the jump from good to great, they often sought support and they would motivate their troops before launching a new plan.
Speaker: But then they would fail and they would pivot.
Speaker: And so they're kind of just lurching and reacting instead of planning and grinding and the momentum building.
Speaker: And so if you just think of them lurching and reacting versus the momentum of the flywheel, yeah, it's slow and steady, but it'll get going.
Speaker: And he says to have faith in the end game and that will help you live through the months or years of buildup.
Speaker: So in summary, the book is about disciplined people, disciplined thought, facing the brutal facts of your company, figuring out where your weak points are, and then chase your hedgehog concept, figuring out what you're passionate about, what you're good at, and what you can make money on, and just focusing all your attention on that.
Speaker: Everything else in the budget goes out the way.
Speaker: You're just focusing on that hedgehog concept.
Speaker: And creating a mission statement that the employees can rally behind.
Speaker: They're all in and it helps them make decisions when you're not around.
Speaker: Like how can they make decisions at their own free will without having to bother you while you're riding your 20th horse of the day or you're at a show and you're busy elsewhere.
Speaker: So creating that independence and freedom in them.
Speaker: And I think really just if we can all learn to be level five leaders, open to criticism and discussion and asking questions of our people and really looking to them who are at the forefront of our business and the trenches, they're doing all the hard work.
Speaker: And if they can come up with better ways and feel open and happy to share that with you, I
Speaker: I think if you do that alone, you will be creating a great business that people will want to work for and that you can create a great name for yourself in the business and the question world.
Speaker: So that's all I have for you all today on the good to great book by Jim Collins.
Speaker: He does have another one called built to last, which I think you're supposed to read before this one, but I haven't read it yet.
Speaker: So, but I think that's on building a company from the beginning versus this one was more of how to turn or him studying how to turn a good business into a great one.
Speaker: So if you're interested, check out Jim Collins books.
Speaker: Um, but I will see you all next time.
Speaker: This audio was created with podcastle.ai.
