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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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    5 out of 5 stars

Love the information, hate the narration

Another great data-driven book. Unfortunately, someone must have told Mr. Collins to spice up his narration. After about 20 minutes of listening, I started to get car sick from all the Fresh college level public speaking techniques used. After another 20 minutes, it became funny, and after another 20 minutes, I learned how to tune out the silly, and actually pay attention to what was being said- which was top-notch, data-driven information. I felt at times the author read a bunch of leadership books and came into the book with some pre-conceived notions that might slightly skew some of his results but overall, very well done... a top 10 business book.

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Fantastic Job

What did you like best about this story?

This book brought me an amazing set of personal revelations. Its insights allow me practical information that I can apply and improve my personal and professional lives.

Any additional comments?

Jim Collins' reading was GREAT! He didn't simply read the words on the page, he sought to create a separate audible version of the book. The audio version is complete on its own without the supporting text.

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    5 out of 5 stars

Great book wit a lot of insights

Awesome book that explains how great companies behave in high uncertainty based on data from research study. Focused on operational and execution side, it greatly augments another book by Jim Collins - Good to Great, which provides a wider outlook on strategy. Personally, I don't really like the manner of speech and voice of Jim Collins. Still, it is OK and I highly recommend this book.

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Assigned for school

I listened to this for a grad school course. The author/narrator did a great job of describing the illustrations and graphs so you don't miss anything.

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Amazing

Amazing book, gives excellent research-based natural laws for creating a great organization. Goes well with Good to Great.

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Maybe the best book you can read today

I use to read Good To Great once a year until Great By Choice came out.

I've now studied it many times.

Today, in the middle of the chaos of spring 2020 I am pretty sure this is the #1 book I recommend to most people.

Minimum, it's great for all the creative types: Artists, Entrepreneurs, Investors & Owners.

Those who are working on improving their little world around them.

Leaders, both by title and by choice - this shares keys you must focus on to not only survive but thrive in this chaotic time.

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Fantastic material and very worthwhile

Jim Collins is fantastic to listen to cause he gets so fired up about a very dry subject. The material is valuable and concise. Highly recommend.

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Keeps you wanting to listen to more!

Would you listen to Great by Choice again? Why?

Yes, I would to get some of the main ideas really ingrained into my brain.

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

Yes, definitely

Any additional comments?

Great usable information. Well done!

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  • JB
  • 01-15-17

Valuable insight in how to be Great

I loved this book! They draw out highly valuable insight on what companies do to be great.
The concepts they find are simple (however, doing them isn't) and easy to compare to your environment. This is a must read for any entrepreneur or even people trying to improve their own greatness.

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    5 out of 5 stars

Awesome insight!

Very insightful...simply the best book on business strategy I've ever read. I really appreciate that all of the data is factual and not based on the authors personal experience and or opinions . Just straight facts...love it. I will be implementing all of the things I learned from this book into my business.

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