Great By Choice

The new study: Great by Choice distinguishes itself from Collins’s prior work by its focus on the type of unstable environments faced by leaders today.

The new findings:

The best leaders were more disciplined, more empirical, and more paranoid.

Following the belief that leading in a “fast world” always requires “fast decisions” and “fast action” is a good way to get killed.

The great companies changed less in reaction to a radically changing world than the comparison companies.

This book is classic Collins: contrarian, data-driven, and uplifting. He and Hansen show convincingly that, even in a chaotic and uncertain world, greatness happens by choice, not by chance.