Great by Choice

By: Jim Collins, Morten T. Hansen

Narrated by: Jim Collins

Length: 8 hrs and 45 mins

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

Collins Quantifies Luck

Collins once again provides some great data on what makes companies and leaders great. He has the ability to look beyond hype and the headlines and dig deep into the DNA of greatness...while laying out a high level road map we can use. Great listen.

Read by Choice

Would you consider the audio edition of Great by Choice to be better than the print version?

By narrating his own material, Jim Collins adds an extra passion that can only from the author. If you liked 'Good to Great' -- this is a must listen to follow up that you will be thrilled to have experienced.

Great book, easy to follow along with audio

Would you listen to Great by Choice again? Why?

Yes. Content was great. I'm not sure about all the fuss made about the narration, though listen to the sample before you buy just in case. I've heard FAR worse and have been disappointed by many other titles narrated by so-called professional narrators. For example, I can't get through 10 minutes of "Wheat Belly" without thinking the narrator is going to take a swing at me through my ear buds. If I were at a conference listening to the author give a talk then this audio is close to how he'd sound. Would I walk out of the talk because of his speech emphasis or would I stay because I care more about learning about what he has to say? Anyway, listen to the sample and, if you manage to survive, purchase this audio book.

Any additional comments?

Just purchase the friggin' audio book, learn something, and don't get hung up on the narration. Really, it's not bad at all.

Must read for fans of Good to Great

Have you listened to any of Jim Collins’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Yes, all of them. This one is very good.

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

Not the kind of book you would want to listen to in one sitting; a lot of information to digest and think about.

Awesome!

Terrific journey wonderful to listen to very inspiring. Must read. Fantastic details. Go out and buy this book!

Great book!!!!!!

recomendable 100000% great work from jim collins loved it completely. If you want another great book from Jim Collins, this is it

great research!

as always, incredible research! that the results derive from the research is always astounding. no preconceived ideas

Great Business book

Great lessons. Deep research went into the discovery of these amazing business theories. I would recommend this book to anyone involved in business.

One of the best in this category

So much value with all this research and analysis. Excellent delivery by the narrator and its very well suited for audio.

Would recommend this book and the others by the same author.

Surprisingly good

Whether you are an entrepreneur, investor or a manager this book provides useful information in a thought provoking and approachable way.

The book discusses how a range of different companies succeeded in turbulent business climates, and relates the lessons learned to other ventures such as scaling Everest and reaching the South Pole. It is immensely useful not only in improving how you manage, but also in helping you identify well managed companies (hence why I suggest this read for investors as well).

While I class buying this book as research, it has also been one of the most entertaining and engaging books I have heard this year. The only down side for me was the narration which is a little choppy, however listening to the book at 2x speed alleviated this.

Needless to say I heartily recommend this book to anyone wanting to quantify what makes some companies super successful. Anyone with even a passing interest in this field will find its stories hugely interesting ind insightful.