Great by Choice: Uncertainty, Chaos, and Luck--Why Some Thrive Despite Them All.

• Author: Merkley, Clark

Great By Choice: Uncertainty, Chaos, and Luck--Why Some Thrive Despite Them All by Jim Collins and Morten T. Hansen

Business leaders who have taken inspiration and direction from the classics Good to Great and Built to Last by Jim Collins will find more great lessons in his book Great by Choice. Collins and co-author Morten Hansen identify key characteristics that enabled seven companies--Amgen, Biomet, Intel, Microsoft, Progressive Insurance, Southwest Airlines and Stryker--to become0 truly great over an extended period of time in an environment characterized by change, uncertainty and even chaos.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Even though much of the comparative research wrapped up in 2002, the lessons for those who have survived "The Great Recession" will ring true.

Collins and Hansen point out that the successful companies were "10Xers" meaning that they outperformed their industry by over 10 times over a long period. They accomplished this greatness by slow, steady and disciplined progress that the authors call the "20-Mile March," a metaphor taken from the 1911 race to the South Pole by one team led by Roald...