BRACO WINDOW CLEANING

Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap...And Others Don't

The Challenge
Built to Last, the defining management study of the nineties, showed how great companies triumph over time and how long-term sustained performance can be engineered into the DNA of an enterprise from the verybeginning.
But what about the company that is not born with great DNA? How can good companies, mediocre companies, even bad companies achieve enduring greatness?
The Study
For years, this question preyed on the mind of Jim Collins. Are there companies that defy gravity and convert long-term mediocrity or worse into long-term superiority? And if so, what are the universal distinguishing characteristics that cause a company to go from good to great?
The Standards
Using tough benchmarks, Collins and his research team identified a set of elite companies that made the leap to great results and sustained those results for at least fifteen years. How great? After the leap, the good-to-great companies generated cumulative stock returns that beat the general stock market by an average of seven times in fifteen years, better than twice the results delivered by a composite index of the world's greatest companies, including Coca-Cola, Intel, General Electric, and Merck.
The Comparisons
The research team contrasted the good-to-great companies with a carefully selected set of comparison companies that failed to make the leap from good to great. What was different? Why did one set of companies become truly great performers while the other set remained only good?
Over five years, the team analyzed the histories of all twenty-eight companies in the study. After sifting through mountains of data and thousands of pages of interviews, Collins and his crew discovered the key determinants of greatness -- why some companies make the leap and others don't.
The Findings
The findings of the Good to Great study will surprise many readers and shed light on virtually every area of management strategy and practice. The findings include:
Level 5 Leaders: The research team was shocked to discover the type of leadership required to achieve greatness.
The Hedgehog Concept (Simplicity within the Three Circles): To go from good to great requires transcending the curse of competence.
A Culture of Discipline: When you combine a culture of discipline with an ethic of entrepreneurship, you get the magical alchemy of great results. Technology Accelerators: Good-to-great companies think differently about the role of technology.
The Flywheel and the Doom Loop: Those who launch radical change programs and wrenching restructurings will almost certainly fail to make the leap.
“Some of the key concepts discerned in the study,” comments Jim Collins, "fly in the face of our modern business culture and will, quite frankly, upset some people.”
Perhaps, but who can afford to ignore these findings?

Five years ago, Jim Collins asked the question, "Can a good company become a great company and if so, how?" In Good to Great Collins, the author of Built to Last, concludes that it is possible, but finds there are no silver bullets. Collins and his team of researchers began their quest by sorting through a list of 1,435 companies, looking for those that made substantial improvements in their performance over time. They finally settled on 11--including Fannie Mae, Gillette, Walgreens, and Wells Fargo--and discovered common traits that challenged many of the conventional notions of corporate success. Making the transition from good to great doesn't require a high-profile CEO, the latest technology, innovative change management, or even a fine-tuned business strategy. At the heart of those rare and truly great companies was a corporate culture that rigorously found and promoted disciplined people to think and act in a disciplined manner. Peppered with dozens of stories and examples from the great and not so great, the book offers a well-reasoned road map to excellence that any organization would do well to consider. Like Built to Last, Good to Great is one of those books that managers and CEOs will be reading and rereading for years to come. --Harry C. Edwards

The Challenge
Built to Last, the defining management study of the nineties, showed how great companies triumph over time and how long-term sustained performance can be engineered into the DNA of an enterprise from the verybeginning.
But what about the company that is not born with great DNA? How can good companies, mediocre companies, even bad companies achieve enduring greatness?
The Study
For years, this question preyed on the mind of Jim Collins. Are there companies that defy gravity and convert long-term mediocrity or worse into long-term superiority? And if so, what are the universal distinguishing characteristics that cause a company to go from good to great?
The Standards
Using tough benchmarks, Collins and his research team identified a set of elite companies that made the leap to great results and sustained those results for at least fifteen years. How great? After the leap, the good-to-great companies generated cumulative stock returns that beat the general stock market by an average of seven times in fifteen years, better than twice the results delivered by a composite index of the world's greatest companies, including Coca-Cola, Intel, General Electric, and Merck.
The Comparisons
The research team contrasted the good-to-great companies with a carefully selected set of comparison companies that failed to make the leap from good to great. What was different? Why did one set of companies become truly great performers while the other set remained only good?
Over five years, the team analyzed the histories of all twenty-eight companies in the study. After sifting through mountains of data and thousands of pages of interviews, Collins and his crew discovered the key determinants of greatness -- why some companies make the leap and others don't.
The Findings
The findings of the Good to Great study will surprise many readers and shed light on virtually every area of management strategy and practice. The findings include:
Level 5 Leaders: The research team was shocked to discover the type of leadership required to achieve greatness.
The Hedgehog Concept (Simplicity within the Three Circles): To go from good to great requires transcending the curse of competence.
A Culture of Discipline: When you combine a culture of discipline with an ethic of entrepreneurship, you get the magical alchemy of great results. Technology Accelerators: Good-to-great companies think differently about the role of technology.
The Flywheel and the Doom Loop: Those who launch radical change programs and wrenching restructurings will almost certainly fail to make the leap.
“Some of the key concepts discerned in the study,” comments Jim Collins, "fly in the face of our modern business culture and will, quite frankly, upset some people.”
Perhaps, but who can afford to ignore these findings?

Was this a private company or part of the Picatinny Arsenal?
[UPDATE: Lucky me, it's a Superfund site, with information available online:
"The site was owned and operated by Reaction Motors/Thiokol Inc. from 1941 to 1963. Past activities included testing and development of rocket engines and propellants. RTI has owned and operated the site from 1972 to the present. During the period of November 1980 and May 1981, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and Energy (DEPE) and the Rockaway Township Health Department conducted investigations at the site. In 1981, the Health Department condemned two water supply wells contaminated with VOCs. An Administrative Order and Notice of Prosecution were issued to RTI in August 27, 1981 ordering RTI to properly remove and clean up spills and buried wastes. In settlement of the verified complaint, RTI and DEPE entered into a Consent Order in July 1983 under which RTI had to install ground water monitoring wells. In August 1987, DEPE contracted Acres International Corporation to perform the RI/FS. Remediation of all radiologically contaminated soil areas was completed by RTI under the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) direction in August 1990 and February 1991. In July 1990, a leaking underground storage tank containing solvents was excavated and disposed of offsite. RTI performed an interim removal action in May 1993, which included tanks, drums, and contaminated soil and sumps. In December 1992, RTI and Thiokol Corporation entered into an ACO to reimburse DEPE for the remainder of the RI/FS and to initiate the RD/RA phase. The 263-acre Radiation Technology Incorporated (RTI) site is located in Morris County, Rockaway Township, NJ. The site is located within two sub-basins of the Rockaway River drainage basin, which include Lake Telemark, Lake Ames, Beaver Brook, Lake Denmark, Lake Picatinny, and Green Pond Brook. Wetlands are adjacent to the site. Current site operations involve low-level irradiation of cosmetics and medical products. The site is comprised of three distinct areas: the active RTI complex (15 acres), the former Rockaway Industrial Park (RIP) (65 acres), and undeveloped land (183 acres). Present land use at the RTI site is predominantly light industrial. The area around the site is generally rural with some significant residential and industrial development. Heavy industrial activities have been ongoing at the Army and Navy portions of the Picatinny Military Arsenal west of the site and single-family residences are located to the east of the site. Rockaway Township has a population of approximately 20,000 people. The site was owned and operated by Reaction Motors/Thiokol Inc. from 1941 to 1963. Past activities included testing and development of rocket engines and propellants. RTI has owned and operated the site from 1972 to the present."

Was this a private company or part of the Picatinny Arsenal?
[UPDATE: Lucky me, it's a Superfund site, with information available online:
"The site was owned and operated by Reaction Motors/Thiokol Inc. from 1941 to 1963. Past activities included testing and development of rocket engines and propellants. RTI has owned and operated the site from 1972 to the present. During the period of November 1980 and May 1981, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and Energy (DEPE) and the Rockaway Township Health Department conducted investigations at the site. In 1981, the Health Department condemned two water supply wells contaminated with VOCs. An Administrative Order and Notice of Prosecution were issued to RTI in August 27, 1981 ordering RTI to properly remove and clean up spills and buried wastes. In settlement of the verified complaint, RTI and DEPE entered into a Consent Order in July 1983 under which RTI had to install ground water monitoring wells. In August 1987, DEPE contracted Acres International Corporation to perform the RI/FS. Remediation of all radiologically contaminated soil areas was completed by RTI under the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) direction in August 1990 and February 1991. In July 1990, a leaking underground storage tank containing solvents was excavated and disposed of offsite. RTI performed an interim removal action in May 1993, which included tanks, drums, and contaminated soil and sumps. In December 1992, RTI and Thiokol Corporation entered into an ACO to reimburse DEPE for the remainder of the RI/FS and to initiate the RD/RA phase. The 263-acre Radiation Technology Incorporated (RTI) site is located in Morris County, Rockaway Township, NJ. The site is located within two sub-basins of the Rockaway River drainage basin, which include Lake Telemark, Lake Ames, Beaver Brook, Lake Denmark, Lake Picatinny, and Green Pond Brook. Wetlands are adjacent to the site. Current site operations involve low-level irradiation of cosmetics and medical products. The site is comprised of three distinct areas: the active RTI complex (15 acres), the former Rockaway Industrial Park (RIP) (65 acres), and undeveloped land (183 acres). Present land use at the RTI site is predominantly light industrial. The area around the site is generally rural with some significant residential and industrial development. Heavy industrial activities have been ongoing at the Army and Navy portions of the Picatinny Military Arsenal west of the site and single-family residences are located to the east of the site. Rockaway Township has a population of approximately 20,000 people. The site was owned and operated by Reaction Motors/Thiokol Inc. from 1941 to 1963. Past activities included testing and development of rocket engines and propellants. RTI has owned and operated the site from 1972 to the present."