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Great by Choice  By  cover art

Great by Choice

By: Jim Collins, Morten T. Hansen
Narrated by: Jim Collins
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Publisher's summary

The new question: Ten years after the worldwide best seller Good to Great, Jim Collins returns to ask: Why do some companies thrive in uncertainty, even chaos, and others do not? In Great by Choice, Collins and his colleague, Morten T. Hansen, enumerate the principles for building a truly great enterprise in unpredictable, tumultuous, and fast-moving times.

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.

©2011 Jim Collins and Morten T. Hansen (P)2011 HarperCollins Publishers

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What listeners say about Great by Choice

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Solid message for business leaders

Like Collins' previous works, it educates, inspires, and teaches catchy new language. Easy to recommend.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great book

What made the experience of listening to Great by Choice the most enjoyable?

Almost everything and I am listening to it the second time now.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Great by Choice?

The comparisons of the Amundsen and Scott ventures.

What about Jim Collins’s performance did you like?

Yes, I liked it.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

muy interesante

gran estudio y potentes insights para ser probados en empresas. muy interesante la historia y el análisis presentado.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Goood content, repeats too much, worth the time

I got some really good ideas from this, so it is well worth the time spent listening to it. In fact, I will probably buy copies for work.

However, there are too many repeated stories, too many stories. I know stories are good, but if I"m reading the book, I can skip over the duplications, listening to it, I just had to grin and bear it and frequently lost my train of listening.

However, it is well worth the time and effort.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

A "Must Read" for evert business owner!

This book contains loads of insite and real life examples of companies that not only weathered the storm but came out leaps and bounds ahead of the competition.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent as expected

Jim Collins and his team always bring excellent insights into the world of improvement. Oddly enough I am starting with great by choice I'm working my way backwards.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Best of the series

This book is a must read for anyone who leads. It will help someone running a business or any other organization, large or small. It is on my top ten list of books

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    5 out of 5 stars
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  • 08-26-21

Great Book

Never thought listening to research would be interesting but there are so many valuable nuggets in this book. Glad I took the time to finish.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Good

Good good good good good Good good good good good Good good good good goodGood good good good good interesting timely insane mesmerizing solid

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

The perfect book for our business right now.

What made the experience of listening to Great by Choice the most enjoyable?

I have found it difficult to listen to business books in the past -- but the combination of the way the book was written (with narrative stories as examples) and the way it was read "imagine a triangle with one side labeled..." made it unnecessary to refer to PDF charts etc.

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