Great by Choice by Jim Collins & Morten Hansen

Great by Choice, a book.  I am naturally drawn to this title. It affirms my own personal philosophy in life.  My professor assigned a reading list and I chose this title.

Jim Collins, author, researcher.

I feel so tech-y because I bought this  book using my Kindle and now I drive and listen to a book without ever holding it in my hands or turning its pages or smelling the ink. The book was written by two researchers, Jim Collins and his buddy Morten Hansen. Jim narrated this Audible  book.

A photo I took at the Nashville airport

The authors' research sought to answer the question "Why and how do some companies thrive in a world of chaos, uncertainty and instability?" The authors researched 20,400 companies seeking to identify companies that didn't just do well but thrived. Only seven companies met their 11-layer criteria. Southwest Airlines was one of them. If you had invested  $10,000 in 1972 in Southwest Airlines by 2002 after 30 years of adverse conditions for the airline industry, your investment would have grown to $12 million. How does that kind of leadership happen? The research answers that question.

The themes that emerge from the research ring true to all human experience. 

The book is written in a conversational style. I had to work hard to focus through all the numbers but it was worth it once he got to the conclusions and implications.