THE FLIPSIDE by Adam J Jackson

THE FLIPSIDE: Finding the hidden opportunities in life by ADAM J JACKSON, (2009), Hachette, Headline Business Plus, London, p 260

There comes a time in the life of almost each one of us when we have to make a choice between taking life head on or surrendering before circumstances. Choices are made as per our priority, environment and the gene that drives us to stand with our decision. Sometime it is due to our physical weakness and sometime it is our attitude. Flipside literally is the other side or the side which is not that positive, which is not that bright. I grew up with some quotes occupying sizable memory of my mind - the grass on the other side looks greener; only the wearer knows where the shoe pinches or only the corpse knows what is going on in the grave; Elephant has two set of teeth - one to show off and the other to chew, etc etc.

When we look at the life of successful people we get lured by their followership, their living style, their admiration, and their sense of achievement. We look at their present status. But when we start learning more about them and their journey and the hardships that they faced we become more rationale. Our understanding becomes better and at times we learn that the kind of problems they faced, the kind of physical torture they experienced, the kind of resource crunch they had, it was almost impossible to excel at what they decided to do and contribute.

Then there are people who found opportunity at a time when they were facing the low at life, they transformed their weaknesses into opportunity by taking challenges and finding real purpose of their existence and life. Adam Jackson has collected such great stories of people from across the globe and compiled them in such a remarkable and convincing way. This is what The Flipside as a book is all about. In one way it is a motivating read for the ones who have sustained linearity in their career and have not experienced hardships of life on the other hand it is packed with such strong nutrients to them who are facing the brunt of time and planning to give up on life that they can learn to stand up on their own and convert their weaknesses into opportunities.

The motivation to develop 'logotherapy' by Viktor Frankl who survived a holocaust is something which inspired me most. The whole science of finding meaning to life and to draw people to understand that meaning of life to them is something which in many ways changed the way psychologist thought addressed this issue. We all have grown through the teachings that for each one of us life has a meaning. What Viktor conceived while suffering during the holocaust became one of the best contributions in the domain of psychology. He learnt that main motivation for living is our strong will to find meaning in life and that led him to develop logotherapy.

I read and re-read the following stanzas few times before going further:

‘They came for him on 25 September 1942.  Along with his wife Tilly and his parents, Dr Viktor Frankl was transported to Theresienstadt concentration camp in the north-west region of what is now the Czech Republic.  It was to be the beginning of an unimaginable nightmare that would last three years, in which Dr Frankl lost almost everything and everyone that he held dear.  With the exception of his one sister who had escaped by emigrating to Australia, all of his family were murdered.  Dr Frankl survived one of the darkest, most shameful periods in Europe’s history and bore witness to deprivation and killing on a scale that had never been seen before.  Yet even in those direst of circumstances, enduring extreme hardship and facing the constant threat of death, Dr Frankl was able to find something in his suffering and through his experiences that would not just change his life, but would also go on to help literally hundreds of thousands of others. Dr Frankl did not just survive Nazi persecution, he found a flipside.’ [p 185-187]

The book is full of such experiences of people who developed products and services, who found real meaning and call from within and pursued that and excelled. The flip side drove them to think of the cause of their existence, it gave them strength to prove their point through their excellent performances and it provided them with an opportunity to transform themselves into a person who stood by one’s call. The examples of the contributions made by Graham Bell, Thomas Alva Edison, Michael Bloomberg, Louis Braille, Richard Branson, Harland Sanders, Walt Disney, Amit Goffer, Spencer Silver, Richard Turner and many others make the book rich in its content.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this title for two strong reasons. One, that it is full of well written true success stories and another is that Adam talked about many of my familiar and favourite works e.g., Blink by Malcolm Gladwell, Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely, Good to Great by Jim Collins and subjective well-being by Ed Diener and alike. The life story of Dan Ariely and his contributions are in itself a testimony to the flip side he experienced.

As a student of Business and Management I would like to relate many instances with the Theory of Constraints. I think it makes lot of sense to explore the limiting factors and to see how organizations have responded to the call of the time. My belief has been that people living in scarcity of resources and suppression demonstrate lot of inner strength to prove their meaningful existence and the competency to excel in much better way as compared to their counterparts living with all comforts of life, leisure and luxury. Adam has helped me strengthen my belief.

Though at some places I found the flow being broken and then beginning is sudden and at some places the ends are left loose, yet I recommend this book to all those who are seeking excellence and who believe that our perception towards life makes what and how we chart out our journey further.

I am reproducing an expression of Viktor Frankl as quoted in this title:

‘We must never forget that we may also find meaning in life even when confronted with a hopeless situation, when facing a fate that cannot be changed.  For what then matters is to bear witness to the uniquely human potential at its best, which is to transform a personal tragedy into a triumph, to turn one’s predicament into a human achievement.’

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also read reviews of:

Why I failed
Good to Great
Outliers
How the mighty fall
Positive Psychology

Why I Failed: Lessons from Leaders by Shweta Punj

WHY I FAILED: Lessons from Leaders by Shweta Punj (2013), Random House India, p 184

We have grown with the story of Thomas Alva Edison on the learning from failures.  Few months back I came across a statement by former Indian President Abdul Kalam that it is more important to read failure stories than success stories as they teach you better insights into the reasons of failure and help avoid them in order to achieve greater heights. Kalam says FAIL means First Attempt In Learning.  Though I had read about many failure stories of great people through their autobiographies or other articles published in periodicals and other publications, however when I came across the title of this book WHY I FAILED, I just ordered the title and got it shelved in my collection.  Around a week back I picked it up from the shelf and started reading through.  I have no hesitation in saying that the book kept me on till I turned its last page.

The book narrates the journey and experiences of sixteen successful personalities from varied fields and focuses on their respective failures.  There are hardcore entrepreneurs in the real sense of the term whether they belong to fashion world or sports, movie making or pure business, they followed their passion, they have gone beyond rules and made their own rules, they are all first movers and have taken risk beyond and capitalized on the opportunity available in the market.

How Thermax was revived against odds by Anu Aga and how she recognized her weaknesses and overcame them is a well briefed story of her entire experience. The journey charted out and the road followed by Kiran Mazumdar Shaw (of Biocon), Dr Pratap C Reddy (of Apollo Hospitals) and Narayana Murthy (of Infosys) and the resistance and red-tape they faced during their effortful and challenging trail is an excellent account on the background of taking up initiative and holding on to that till it gets through. 

In the Indian corporate circles sacking of a CEO is something quite unheard of. The plight of Sunil Alagh after being shown the gate by Wadias of Brittania is quite known by the followers of Indian business stories. The contribution that Sunil made in developing Brittania as a prominent brand is not unknown to many and it is believed that it was during his tenure that Brittania gained the competitive advantage that it still capitalizes on.  Sunil’s dealing with this setback and coming out of it successfully is discussed in the book nicely.

The man behind the Lavasa township project Ajit Gulabchand’s (of Hindustan Construction Corporation) constant belief in the project and how his perseverance paid him in dealing with the bureaucratic and political pressures successfully has been narrated by Shweta very lucidly in the book.  He learnt that at times speed, overconfidence and preposterous actions may bring down even one of the most strong leaders and his decision so one has to be over cautious at times while taking strategic decisions.

The lady behind the success of Jindal’s SAW plant, Sminu Jindal has been able to control the affairs and followed some of her original practices overcoming her personal physical weakness. She has shown immense courage and perspiration in managing her plant and office successfully. The popularity of the brand called Fabindia is the result of hard work, personal belief and commitment of William Bissell who have dealt with many challenges and developed an unique company based on community entrepreneurship. The growth of the company in last ten years is the fruit of involvement of the communities at different locations in feeding Fabindia stores through their collective craft culture. I am sure this needs replication by other entrepreneurs in different other segments of the market and it shall certainly help build self-sustaining India and connect the market with the back-end suppliers and craftsmen. Fabindia stores are an excellent modern day version of khadi ashrams, which are spread across India. I am sure these stores shall be able to provide the texture of khadi with experience of Indian culture and craft and expand its reach to the modern day urban youth.

Goenkas of Kolkata have a rich history of entrepreneurship and enterprise when we look at the business history of India in last two hundred years.  They have been operating in different businesses and have provided job opportunities for sizeable population. The story of Sanjiv Goenka in taking up Calcutta Electric Supply Corporation (CESC) is well told in the book as in case of Sabyasachi Mukherjee in going against the decision of their respective patriarchs.  A strong resistance from the employees and workers initially did not deter Sanjiv from his belief that he can reconstruct CESC and make it a viable and profitable venture. His approach showed the strong spirit of ekla chalo, though later people involved in the process understood the conviction reposed by Sanjiv and his honest intention of rebuilding CESC and cooperated with him.  The fate of Shankar Sharma and his wife is well explained in the book and their admission of a mistake about their investment in media firm tehelka makes their story conciliate and convincing.

Gold medalist Olympian, Abhinav Bindra’s reasoning of the loss in the subsequent olympics provides an excellent insight and psychological defense for the loss.  I have reasons to believe that there must be theories around this phenomenon defending that the efforts and rigor are determined by the force to prove.  Passion driven Sabyasachi Mukherjee who defied his father’s decision and went ahead with pursuing his career in fashion designing is an inspiring tale between traditional and modern choices of career and the believe in oneself to pursue one’s dream.  The journey of Madhur Bhandarkar and Subhash Ghai (both from movie world) traversing through disturbed past in problems of poverty in one case and of poor upbringing in another case reassures a belief that suppression both material as well as emotional drives one to prove a point and put forth all of the energies into that direction.  The story of these duo reminds of the past of many great people in different fields.

Many times in our lives we tend to take decisions based on our gut or based on hearsay or fall victim to herd behavior. Many times we get carried away with our previous achievements. Many times we do not plan things in right earnest and it all results in failures, though with some few exceptions.  At the time of the event, decision or action we do not realize the shortcomings and mistakes but at a longer span of time we tend to relate things and actions, we then compare and realize the mistakes that we have committed.  The realization of accepting the reason for failure is the first step to correct the future course of action. This book tends to help the reader to reason out the failures or mistakes and provides a boost through going through these stories that if one is determined one can learn from mistakes and act cautiously towards achieving higher goals. I remember a quote by Ratan Tata - Ups and downs of life are very important to keep us going, because a straight line even in an ECG means we are not alive.

The chapters are well planned and leave the reader with the nuggets on why they failed and an advice to avoid failure. Shweta Punj has written this book conspirito and her approach has been very candid. The basis of selection of these personalities is not mentioned anywhere however the common thread that I could find is that all of them have been first in marching out of the way and established themselves in their respective domain. I missed the presence of Kishore Biyani, Subhash Chandra, and Vikram Akola in this volume. But I can understand the limitations of the author and it is extremely difficult to have many or to come upto the expectations of every reader.  She has really toiled hard to document these stories and for that she deserves appreciation.  May be we can expect some similar stories in the times to come profiling other achievers. 

Failure and success are two sides of the same coin.  They move together.  This is where this book helps one understand the importance of failures in driving one towards success.The future of failure is success and the future of success is achievement.  I recommend this book to every individual who believes in failure and success as two different islands.  I am sure their belief shall get transformed as they turn the pages of this book.

David & Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell

DAVID & GOALIATH: Underdogs, Misfits and the Art of Battling Giants by Malcolm Gladwell (2013), Allen Lane - an imprint of Penguin (Great Britain), p 305

We have grown with mythological stories of people who won over their enemies even when they had much less visible strength.  The biblical text helps us understand this phenomenon through the winning spree of David over Goliath.  Gladwell takes that as a reference and weaves the threads of different colors and translate that through this book titled David & Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits and the art of battling Giants. The efforts are put to narrate stories of different contexts and coincidences, different time and textures, and different people and places yet being one in spirit of underdogs defeating giants. The defense of the argument is placed in such a way through the research findings of academicians and practitioners that one tends to draw convincing conclusion towards the author's view.  

In the behavioral sciences there are numerous works to the effect that disadvantaged individuals have inherent strength of facing the challenges as posed to them as compared to the ones who are advantaged.  The drive of proving better and asserting their positions are the learning that disadvantaged or suppressed individuals go through in their formidable years of life.  This has been narrated by Gladwell in this title.  He has tried defending the victory of David over Goliath through different stories of people who have excelled in their career and shown the world that their weakness is their strength.  

The book starts with the story of Vivek Ranadive, an Indian born, American educated engineer and entrepreneur, who is passionate about Basketball and NBA.  He coached his young daughter and her friends to play in National Junior Basketball tournament representing Redwood City. The strategy drawn, demonstrated and implemented in defending themselves and competing against established teams make it important and Gladwell traces the whole story to prove a point that Goliath is not quite the giant he thinks he is.

The belief that powerful always wins tends to develop an arrogant attitude which makes an individual or team Goliath and there are Davids who are well aware of their physical (visible) weakness, yet they are convinced that it is not just the physical strength that is required to win but a well crafted strategy to attack at the given moment and given target which is more important and this could make them winner or if not winner at least shall help Goliath understand that size and arrogance does not matter. 

I get reminded of the book by JimCollins – How the Mighty Fall where through organizational examples Jim successfully convinces that it is the sense of arrogance in the Mighty Firms which make them fall in the long run.  Goliath corporations have experienced that fall and David corporations have succeeded through their effective strategies and their efficient implementation in sustaining their growth.

I quite liked the section where Gladwell explains different researches on American schools and colleges on the issues concerning choice of subjects, choice of school/colleges, general perception of students/parents towards them, performance of top/bottom students, physical facilities in schools and their fees, and their effect on students’ achievement ultimately. It is a real puzzle and it becomes extremely difficult to draw conclusion by just having an apparent look. 

As a classroom teacher the size of the class has always been one of the issues that we have been discussing over coffee or in formal meetings. The size or number of students in the class has a correlation with their performance and it depends on various conditions and level that what could be the ideal size of a class.  It is almost impossible to generalize their number at all levels or in all conditions or for all types of students.  However size does matter.  Gladwell explains through various researches on American schools, colleges and universities and draws that there is inverted U relationship with number of students and their performance. 

Selection of colleges has always been a challenge for parent and children when they come out of school.  Top students of schools aspire to join best colleges for the want of their better career.  But since in the top colleges all the students are top students, many of them tend to develop an inferiority complex (as coined by psychologist Alfred Adler) and it gets reflected in the performance of students.  This is quite evident across geographies just as the perception that better students opt for STEM (Science, Technology & Maths) courses in their college.  Through few examples and researches Gladwell helps us understand this and help us develop a better perspective on the reality. Top students, who chose lesser known colleges but concentrate on their subjects of preference, tend to achieve better grades in their exams as compared to their counterparts who have taken admission in better known colleges.  Arguably, this explains Big-Fish-Little-Pond Effect (as introduced by Herbert W Marsh).

I learnt about Cognitive Reflection Test (CRT as invented by Shane Frederick) for the first time while I was reading Kahneman’sThinking Fast and Slow, and while I used it with some students myself, I found it really worth saying that it is one of shortest intelligence test that we have today.  Gladwell argues using this test as a reference for the theory of desirable difficulty as through fading off the print color (experimented by Alter and Oppenheimer) of the same question of CRT which improved the performance of the students. He further relates it to dyslexic people.

We have seen many prominent personalities like Einstein, Pablo Picasso, Graham Bell, Henry Ford, Agatha Christie, Richard Branson, and many more, who were dyslexic. Being dyslexic did not deter them to achieve greater heights. Rather as Gladwell argues their desirable difficulty level was high which drove them to concentrate and focus on the difficulty and that is what made them winner at last. It could well be defended this way.  However practically it is hard to believe that just to increase the level of desirable difficulty any parent would ever wish to have dyslexic children.

He narrates the journey of dyslexic David Boies from his difficult childhood to his entry into law school and then of becoming one of the most prominent lawyers of United States.  Similarly journey of Gary Cohn from unassuming treatment by teachers in school to a job selling aluminum siding and window frames to becoming president of Goldman Sachs is also very interesting. 

‘Dyslexia – in the best of cases – forces you to develop skills that might otherwise have lain dormant. It also forces you to do things that you might otherwise never have considered… learning how to deal with the possibility of failure is really good preparation for career in the business world.’

The journey of Emil Jay Freireich has been narrated brilliantly and in very exhaustive manner by Gladwell.  At times the account given in the text looks like a fiction.  Freireich’s personality helps us understand many more things than what Gladwell intended and expressed.  However this is an exceptional story and any kind of generalization shall destroy the defense that this book is eyeing for.  The story woven through the picture as appeared in the New York Times taken on 3^rd May 1963, by Bill Hudson in Birmingham, Alabama, where Martin Luther King Jr.’s activists had taken on the city’s racist public safety commissioner Eugene Bull Connor, is excellent and narrates the contemporary politics and power and how the approach and behavior of Wyatt Walker transformed the local behavior.   

We have all different ways to dealing with the losses, some resolve to take revenge, some put efforts to reason it out and tread through their actions (e.g., Reynolds known for Three Strikes Law) and some consider it to be the call of the nature and accept it and move on with life (e.g., Wilma Derksen’s family).  It is extremely difficult to pass a judgment as to who/what is right and who/what is wrong. The loss of a child for some parents is such a loss that throughout life they can’t forget it and for some life moves on easily.  It is part of their personality.  This point has been expressed in few chapters on the limits of power.

Dyslexia, single-parent childhood, individuals with low visible strength, school dropouts, etc are not desirable traits even when they might have proven as defendable strength through this text. The defense through citing research findings makes this book rich, however it suffers from problem of ‘selective perception’ to defend one’s argument as no scientific selection procedure has been followed in choosing the research papers and literature that is cited to prove a point or otherwise. Even the earlier work of Gladwell– Outliers, suffered from the same problem of generalizations. 

The lessons learnt from David and Goliath could be seen from the perspective of organizations as well and that is where I feel this work suggests some kind of direction.  We have seen arrogant and failing business organizations, we have seen big/giant yet humble organizations. Historical facts, events and personalities are so well contextualized that it provides a valuable documentation for the benefit of reader who might not have had interest in contemporary history.  He needs to be acknowledged for this contribution of him. Overall though Malcolm Gladwell succeeds in keeping the reader close to the book till last, yet towards the end it goes beyond context and finds last few paragraphs to establish connectivity. No doubt he is a great storyteller but at times it seems he gets carried away with a feeling that he is writing non-fiction and his kind of generalizations may not be welcomed by all of his fans and readers alike.

Outliers - the story of success by Malcolm Gladwell

OUTLIERS - the story of success by Malcolm Gladwell (2008), Penguin Books, p 309.

The question as to what is that which makes people successful keeps coming to our mind as we keep reading about great people and come across their journey. I have been trying to find out that formula which can help me understand the basics for becoming a successful person. Shakespearean belief that Some are born Great, Some achieve Greatness and on some Greatness is thrust upon caught my attention while I started relating Greatness with Success and later realized that there is a difference in being Successful and in being Great. While reading about different research works and books I came across this book titled OUTLIERS by one of my favorite authors Malcolm Gladwell (MG) and having gone through 'Blink' and 'The Tipping Point', I thought that my familiarity with the writing style of MG might solve the puzzle that I have been facing all this while.

MG successfully traces the background of successful individuals and develops a story around it focusing on finding out the antecedents. Biological and biographical characteristics of individuals determine a kind of behavior individuals follow. Key success factors of individuals are determined by the culture, background, growing up, geography (location), prevailing political-social-economical-technological conditions, etc. This book starts a story interwoven with various researches by educationists, psychologists and sociologists to defend so succinctly the argument and convinces the reader chapter after chapter what the author wants to convey, the constituents of being successful. The reasoning given in the book is at times never ever thought of but he is able to win through his in depth study and linking the condition with the outcome.

The cause of maintaining better cardiological standards is explained through the research done by Bruhn and Wolf which is able to keep the reader engrossed and curious to further learn about other stories. Community living through providing a strong support system with ‘a thinking beyond the individual’ was found to be the main reason unlike their biological and geographical background. MG writes - I want to do for our understanding of success what Stewart Wolf did for our understanding of health.

The book is divided in two parts - Opportunity and Legacy. The author seems to be convinced that there are these two great differentiators which make people successful or otherwise. Coincidental yet providing a defense for being successful hockey player as they were born in a given month makes it really interesting and the as the argument seems making sense, one realizes that it is just because in order to have admission into Hockey Academy one has to be of certain age and many a times it is manipulated.  The point is the available opportunity to these players who join the academy and who are not able to join, makes all the difference, though at the end of the day it is genuine performance which matters. The opportunity which was capitalized by Bill Gates or the people of his tribe makes the case of being successful through the presence of opportunity more than the talent. It really does make sense and we have seen it all around us. Many talented individuals could not achieve greater heights in their career just because they did not get the opportunity or they just could not have that talent which could convert the opportunity into targeted performance. In case of technological transformation (especially in connection with computers), people who were born in 50s could avail the opportunity in 70s. It was just in time for them.

Growing up with a statement – practice makes the man perfect, I realize that outliers also possess patience and get an opportunity for seriously practicing for their passion, their focus, their target and resultantly achieve it. As portrayed by MG in this book through the example of The 10,000-Hour Rule, and illustrated through the success of Beatles, Bill Gates, Bill Joy and others in the same club.     

A lot depends on the growing up of individuals and what they learn from their growing up. The prevalent conditions and situation and the art of successfully dealing with it in one’s advantage is what becomes a contributing factor for having an attitude to learn and work hard (or otherwise).  The culture of honor determines one’s cognitive faculties through an attitude, perception, and personality. Depending on whether one has grown as farmer or herdsman, in the bordering town or mainstream city, one carries oneself and forms a certain kind of behaviour. This is Legacy and MG believes that it plays an important role in distinguishing successful individuals from not-so-successful ones. Extrinsic factors apart from biological characteristics of an individual determine the scale of success (or otherwise) for them.

The case of crash of Korean Air plane is explained, reasoned and corroborated in such an excellent way which displays MG’s brilliance in putting the threads together and weaving an excellent story with it, leaving behind so much of bulleted learning. For the students of behaviour and management it makes an important read. The conditions in which one grows up drives him/her to develop a certain kind of behaviour which results in an attitude to perform one’s best and to be assertive about one’s position which is part of a legacy an individual carries forward with. Number of days and hours of effective schooling in a year and day in eastern world as compared to western world is relatively more.  The school year in the US is, on average, 180 days long, in South Korea it is 220 days, and in Japan it is 243 days long. This develops an attitude of hardworking in a child from the very beginning which is driven by the fact that one needs to put more efforts. The example of rising before dawn 360 days a year makes sense for the case of having more effective working time. Knowledge Is Power Program in New York City is the result of this learning in order to get prepared to compete with their eastern counterparts.

The dedication of the book to Daisy, the grandmother of MG is very apt and the reason has been explained by him towards the end of the book. This in fact makes Daisy as well as MG and MG’s mother an Outlier. I strongly recommend this book for anyone who believes in the pursuit towards excellence and in the quest of knowing the rationale.

GET TO THE TOP by Suhel Seth

GET TO THE TOP - The ten rules for social success by Suhel Seth (2011) Random House India, p 196

I have always believed that it is the relationships which provide energy and strength to carry on with life positively.  It is through relationships that we get to learn the nuances of leading life successfully and in full king size.  Friendship is one such relationship and since it involves the choice rather than imposition one has to be cautious while choosing friends and committed while maintaining friendships.  This is the basic rule that I have been following.  Having watched Suhel Seth on TV and read him through his columns, when I came to know about this title called 'Get to the top', I decided then and there to get a copy and go through it to further explore on the art of maintaining relationships.

This book is divided in four parts which cover 10 chapters, 4 appendixes apart from acknowledgement section.  Relationships are mutual and could be initiated by either party.  At times we look at a person and get attracted to talk to and at times people get attracted to us.  

The book provides the keys for attracting the attention so that people keep looking forward for meeting you or listening to you or sharing some time with you, he provides two rules for that, viz., the self-development rule and the impact rule.  Similarly the book prescribes many rules and guides the reader to follow some practices which always help to maintain long lasting relationships.  The book is full of anecdotes and examples from the personal life of Suhel and after going through the book one would certainly develop an admiration of the author as he is able to balance his relationships between two persons of totally different ideology.  This is an impressible art.  And in a very suggestive form this book helps one to that call of balancing act.  Respect for friends and selfless commitment is a virtue and it is really a very difficult act, though not impossible.  His relationships with his friends like Russi Mody (though at a time his boss), Vijay Mallya, Kapil Sibal, Arun Jaitley, Barkha Dutt, etc. (a complete list of friends is given at the end of the book who taught him the secret of learning how to get to the top), as narrated and illustrated through the events makes the book rich in its delivery and content as well as relevant and convincing to the reader.   

The most important advice I liked was the uprightness and consistency in one’s behavior and I too strongly feel that it might result in some short term losses but at the end one is sure of being admired by the affected parties.  So a great lesson and practice which keeps one as an honest, concerned and committed relation maintainer.

I loved some of the sentences like : Ultimately, the secret to expressing an opinion intelligently is to ensure that it doesn’t cause irreparable offence (p38), be interested in people, not because of how wealthy or intelligent they are or how old, but because of what they are like (p 57), once you discover that you are the object of gossip, take instant action (p 74), Bitching isn’t the only thing that erodes trust. So does praise.  Too often compliments can became flattery and flattery puts you in a n asymmetrical relationship with a person (p 75), turning friends into clients is a recipe for disaster (p 120), remember always that the rich and powerful ultimately want the same things as the rest of us (p 168), no matter how powerful or influential a crook is, you should realize that you can never have him as your true friend (p169), never give precedence to your new friends over your childhood friends.  Your childhood friends are the only ones who will never judge you for what you have become or when you have failed (p 170),

He chants some mantra’s like: having opinion is the key to getting noticed, people need to be like sanitary napkins – absorb all opinions but not colour the issues, think like a debater – respect the other side of your argument, delivery is key – opinions should make you friends not enemies, invite people to your home who will laugh and be happy irrespective of material considerations like which car they drive or what clothes they wear.

In total the book is packaged very nicely and it really does not take much time to get through the end of the book.  I personally enjoyed reading it for a change. 

Good to Great by Jim Collins

GOOD TO GREAT: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don't, by James C Collins (Jim Collins), 2001, published by Collins (an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers), USA. p 300

Generally as we read about business organizations and their transformations, it becomes obvious to see some of them doing good, some doing better than others and some not reaching to their targeted goals.  There are many factors which play their respective roles to make the organizations as they are and one of the most important factor is the kind of leader it has and the kind of leadership he/she follows in order to direct the efforts of the organization to achieve its established targets and to carry on with the journey of transforming organizations.

Jim Collins, who co-authored (with Jerry Porras) a business classic entitled Build to Last concentrating on organizational transformation, brought out this great book (based on US Corporations) with robust data and methodology to convince the readers of its relevance through defending the cause of great leadership as the most important parameter to transform a good corporation into a great one.  The creativity in putting the arguments and deriving basic principles of modern day leadership is the acumen of Jim who along with his dedicated team of researchers could filter out 11 American companies which were selected into good-to-great set.

The book is divided in 9 chapters, appended with research notes.  In fact around one third part of the book is devoted to the research notes and references which makes the book very rich, authenticated and authoritative.  The first chapter starts with its caption Good is the enemy of great and outlines the motivation of this work and further explains the basis of selection of 11 companies.  The performance of the companies through the stock returns is the primary basis of selection though a precondition that the company must have appeared in Fortune 500 companies of 1995 is followed.  The methodology follows 4 cuts to eliminate the companies at different levels.  At Cut 1 level 1435 companies are selected out of Frotune 500 companies, on the basis of their performance between 1965-1995 (30 years), then at Cut 2 level, out of 1435, 126 companies are filtered on the basis of CRSP (Univeristy of Chicago Centrer for Research on Security Prices) data based on 4 tests and then at Cut 3, 19 companies are selected on the basis of cumulative stock returns of each candidate company as per CRSP data set, and then out of this 11 companies were selected which made a transition.  This is what made them Good-to-Great companies.  The selection process is fully described in the Appendix A.  The 11 companies thus selected are compared with another company (known as director comaparison company).  These companies are : Abbott Vs Upjohn (which was taken over by Pfizer in 2002), Circuit City Vs Silo, Fannie Mae Vs Great Western, Gillette Vs Warner-Lambert, Kimberly-Clark Vs Scott Paper, Kroger Vs A&P, Nucor Vs Bethlehem Steel, Philip Morris Vs RJ Reynolds, Phitney Bowes Vs Addressograph, Walgreens Vs Eckerd, and Wells Fargo Vs Bank of America.  The direct comparison companies are selected on the basis of there operation in the same industry with same opportunities and similar resources at the time of transition.  However there are some companies (Burroughs, Chrysler, Harris, Hasbro, Rubbermaid and Teledyne) which made a short term shift from good to great but failed to maintain the trajectory - to address the question of sustainability.   Thus in total 28 companies are studied to find out the commonalites (and What's Different) which make transform a good company into a great company.

In general, in contrast with the general assumptions they found out interesting facts (dogs that did not bark syndrome) as:

• Larger-than-life, celebrity leders who ride in from the outside are negativley correlated with taking a company from good to great.  Ten of eleven good to great CEOs came from inside the company, whereas the comparison companies tried outside CEOs six tims more often.
• No systematic patter linking specific forms of executive compensation to the process of goin from good to great.
• Strategy per se did not separate the good to great companies from the comparison companies.
• Good-to-Great companies did not focus on what to do to become great, they focused equally on what not to do and what to stop doing.
• Technology can accelerate a transformation but it cannot cause a transformation.
• No relation and impact of merger/acquisitions.
• Good-to-Great companies paid scant attention to managing change, motivating people, or creating alignment.  
• Good-to-Great companies had no name, tag line, launch event, or program to signify their transformations.
• Good-to-Great companies were not, by and large, in great industries, and some were in terrible industries.  

The book advocates for Level 5 Leadership driven out of the readings, data, narratives and the contributions of great leaders in the good-to-great companies.  The personal characteristics of the leaders, their competence level, commitment to the cause, integrity and honest intentions are some such common features found in the leaders of great organizations.  The transformations of the organizations during the tenure of their visionary leaders is well placed in the book (George Cain at Abott, Alan Wurtzel at Circuit City,  David Maxwell at Fennie Mae, Darwin Smith at Kimberley-Clark, Colman Mockler at Gillette, Jim Herring at Kroger, Lyle Everingham at Nucor, Joe Cullman at Philip Morris, Fred Allen at Pitney Bowes, Charles Walgreen at Walgreen Pharm, and Carl Reichardt at Wells Fargo). The robust database and collections of articles, press reports etc from different journals, magazines etc are the base for the arguments for Good-to-Great organizations.

Professional Will and Personal Humility are portrayed as two sides of Level 5 Leadership which refers to a five level hierarchy of executive capabilities, level 5 leaders are ambitious, to be sure, but ambitious first and foremost for the company, not themselves, they set up their successors for even greater success in the next generation, display a compelling modesty, are self-effacing and understated, are fanatically driven, infected with an incurable need to produce sustained results, display a workmanlike diligence, look out the window to attribute success to factors other than themselves.  Generally we tend to overstate the role of money or compensation with the performance.  Quite the contrary Good-to-great companies do not support such an argument.  This is even otherwise proved in the context of any individual which is popularly known as Easterlin Paradox in happiness literature. Another general perception that 'people are most important asset' is questioned by Collins and he says 'people are not your most important asset. The right people are'.  In fact there have been a concern raised on this issue by the management academicians.  I remember one of the very prominent paper by Peter Drucker where he argues that People (Employees) are not assets, rather they are Liabilities.  Collins view that right people are real asset for organization is well defended in the book.  While making comparisons with the counterpart companies the differences in the practices are explained and the key is found to be the right kind of people at the right place.  Chapter three ends with a very good sentence - The people we interviewed from the good-to-great companies clearly loved what they did, largely because they loved who they did it with.  This sentence says it all.

The companies in order to succeed must confront with the brutal facts of their current reality. And such confrontation must be with all positivity and honest intentions. The truth must be heard and the corporations must develop a culture of this kind through leading with questions and not answers, through employee engagement, through conducting autopsies without blame and through building such mechanisms which does not allow you to ignore crucial information.  The learning of the adversity and successfully managing it is a strong feature of good-to-great companies and such lessons can be learnt from Stockdale Paradox which is based on a simple thinking that - retain absolute faith that you can and will prevail int eh end, regardless of the difficulties.  Unlike general assumption, Jim experiences that in good-to-great companies, charisma can be as much a liability as an asset, as the strength of your leadership personality can deter people from bringing you the brutal facts.

Three intersecting circles (What you are deeply passionate about, what you can be the best in the world at, what drives your economic engine) of Hedgehog concept are really great convincing factors. Jim says that good-to-great companies are the best in the world at circle of the Hedgehog concept and this he explains through the practical example of all the 11 such companies.  The culture of discipline has to be developed to transform an organization into a great organization.  The freedom or autonomy has to be commissioned to the people within a set framework.  The discipline of working within the system and structure and allowing people to use their freedom in decision making within it makes one a great organization.  It is not just the disciplined action which is important, equally important is to get disciplined people who engage in disciplined thought and who then take disciplined action.  The organizations have to get habituated to stay within three circles which shall allow them to explore further opportunities for growth.  The stop doing list has to be prepared cautiously and such activities needs to be ignored for capitalising on potential growth opportunities.

Good-to-Great companies showed consistent use of technology as accelerator of momentum, not a creator of it. The flywheel model (tremendous power exists in the fact of continued improvement and the delivery of results) as suggested by Jim proved that the great organizations followed it in one or the other way as compared to comparison companies which followed the doom loop.  It also included maintaining proper returns through their performance at the Wall Street.

Earlier work of Jim Collins in the shape of Built to Last concentrated on what does it take to start and build an enduring great company from the ground up.  While he took up the project on studying Good-To-Great companies, Built to last was there at the back of the mind of his team.  As mentioned - Looking back on the built to last study, it appears that the enduring great companies did in fact go through a process of buildup to breakthroughs following the good to great framework during their formative years, though the organizations studied were all different, however an overlapping in the approach on looking at them was observed.  Some of the frameworks proposed in this book were seen to have been followed by the organizations which were under study in Built to Last like in the case of role of Sam Walton in the evolution of Walmart, who followed Fly Wheel model.  This chapter 9 (last chapter) of the book compares these two books (Built to last and Good to Great) through suggested models and how they were practiced by them.  As suggested in the Built to Last, preserving core values and purpose is important for enduring corporations and they have to preserve the creative culture of the the organization, however in Good-to-Great, which is primarily focused on developing the base for Level 5 Leadership, the concentration is on the leaders role and his/her sense of personal humility.

As individuals we aspire to be great, we always think (ideally) that we must leave behind such contributions for which we are remembered, this is was drives us to think of something great.  Similarly organizations also need to think of achieving greatness.  And this is where Jim Collins through this work tries to convince the readers of the practices that great business leaders follow to transform their organization into a great organization.  Mind it unquestionably who would not be interested in achieving greatness. Greatness is not a function of circumstance. Greatness, it turns out, is largely a matter of conscious choice.