Finally finished the book after reading for more than 3 months. I am a bit agitated today trying to solve the kitchen drain problem to no avail. I decided to let it go and try again another day. Aimed to finish reading the book, at least I did something value-adding activities and just cross one of the pending stuffs today. Anyways, drain problem aside, my day is kind of productive in food-prep department so I am not worried if I am going to be malnourished for the next few weeks.
Back to the book, it is about strategies or roadmap on how companies could be good from great. It has exhaustive illustrative examples on companies that succeeded and failed – very balanced and practical analysis, in my opinion. To sum up, to become good, there are 5 components that need to be present:
- Level 5 leadership – leaders who are humble, visionary and authentic, realistic, brave to face harsh truth but remain faithful to goals.
- Have the right people on the bus and discard the wrong people
- Hedgehog concept – what we are good at, what we can be the best at, what are our economic engine (very nuanced and interesting concept)
- Discipline culture – having disciplined people on the bus reduce the need to micromanage and can focus on strategies (again relate back with second point)
- Technology as enabler (expand operation, simplify processes, increases productivity and profit)
To build a great company, following the roadmap is not enough. The company must consistently build up what they are doing good at, that propels them towards their goals. The book introduces ‘Flywheel’ concept. That each momentum of buildup has to be iterated consistently like a pendulum, or a flywheel. Key thing is, there has to be momentum to keep improving, perfecting and progressing. Great companies don’t suddenly transform via flashy gimmicks or outrageous strategy overnight. It takes years of continuous improvement to arrive at where they are. As the book depicts, imagine an egg incubating before it hatches. People only notice when the egg cracks. No one can see the whole growing process within the egg during incubation. That concept appeals so much to me.
Having read the book made me briefly think of what I am doing now. Do I want to make my fitness career or my IT consultancy thrive? How am I going to do both side by side? I must think hard and ask myself what I really need right now to get where I want to be. Fitness is all fun and great, but for now I don’t see stability and much growth in it for me; but it’s great to build a healthier community. Consultancy needs crazy networks and resources to even start up. I really want to do both but slowly adding more focus on consultancy. I know how to do both, I just need people and reflect back on the Hedgehog concept. What’s next, I got to create structure on the fitness side, simplify processes and redefine what are my goals for it to become a great enterprise to build what it has been doing; for consultancy, I am going to research my products and offerings for easy kickstart.