63 pages • 2 hours read
Jim CollinsGood to Great
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2001A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Essay Topics
According to Collins, the core principles of Good to Great apply beyond the business world. Providing evidence from your own observations and reading, argue how the concepts of Good to Great can be relevant to someone’s personal life.
Using evidence from the book to support your assertions, discuss the importance of getting the right people on (or off) the bus in the context of a company striving to be great.
Discuss the relationship between leadership and authority in the examples Collins provides throughout the book. Are leadership and authority ultimately synonymous?
Of all the good-to-great companies Collins cites throughout the book, which of them seems most likely to maintain its success in the 21st century? Support your arguments by using evidence from the book.
Discuss how Collins’s definition of greatness fits into the increasingly diverse landscape of companies and organizations in the world today. Support your arguments by using evidence from the book, as well as your own observations and reading.
Throughout the book, Collins discusses both the unique and shared characteristics of the good-to-great companies he cites. How can these good-to-great companies, which are outliers by nature, serve as guiding examples with universally applicable principles?
Discuss the importance of belief in the context of a company’s potential transformation from good to great. Why does believing that change is possible make a difference?
Which of the seven defining components of the path from good to great seems most important? Which seems least important? Support your arguments by using evidence from the book, as well as your observations and reading.
Collins opens the book by making the claim that “good is the enemy of great.” Discuss how this statement applies to notable examples from both ancient and recent history.
Throughout the book, Collins cites a number of CEOs, some of whom elevated their companies from good to great, while others kept their companies on a plateau of mediocrity. Using two or more of these examples, discuss how Collins uses the juxtapositions between different types of CEOs to emphasize his arguments about good-to-great leadership.
