James C. Collins Quotes

“I don't know where we should take this company, but I do know that if I start with the right people, ask them the right questions, and engage them in vigorous debate, we will find a way to make this company great.”

— James C. Collins

“Mediocrity results first and foremost from management failure, not technological failure.”

— James C. Collins

“The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.”

— James C. Collins

“I can just let my curiosity wander unleashed.”

— James C. Collins

You absolutely cannot make a series of good decisions without first confronting the brutal facts. The good-to-great companies operated in accordance with this principle, and the comparison companies generally did not.

— James C. Collins

“Those who build great companies understand that the ultimate throttle on growth for any great company is not markets, or technology, or competition, or products. It is one thing above all others: the ability to get and keep enough of the right people.”

— James C. Collins

“The only truly reliable source of stability is a strong inner core and the willingness to change and adapt everything except that core.”

— James C. Collins

“It is far more important to know who you are than where you are going, for where you are going will certainly change as the world about you changes.”

— James C. Collins

“It's not how you compensate your executives, it's which executives you have to compensate in the first place. If”

— James C. Collins

“Level 5 leaders embody a paradoxical mix of personal humility and professional will. They are ambitious, to be sure, but ambitious first and foremost for the company, not themselves.”

— James C. Collins

“Larger-than-life, celebrity leaders who ride in from the outside are negatively correlated with going from good to great. Ten of eleven good-to-great CEOs came from inside the company, whereas the comparison companies tried outside CEOs six times more often.”

— James C. Collins

“Greatness is an inherently dynamic process, not an end point. The moment you think of yourself as great, your slide toward mediocrity will have already begun.”

— James C. Collins

Bureaucratic cultures arise to compensate for incompetence and lack of discipline, which arise from having the wrong people on the bus in the first place.

— James C. Collins

“Most men would rather die, than think. Many do.”

— James C. Collins

“Peter Drucker once observed that the drive for mergers and acquisitions comes less from sound reasoning and more from the fact that doing deals is a much more exciting way to spend your day than doing actual work.35”

— James C. Collins

“We expected that good-to-great leaders would begin by setting a new vision and strategy. We found instead that they first got the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people in the right seats - and then they figured out where to drive it.”

— James C. Collins

“Granted, the Scott Paper story is one of the more dramatic in our study, but it's not an isolated case. In over two thirds of the comparison cases, we noted the presence of a gargantuan personal ego that contributed to the demise or continued mediocrity of the company.33”

— James C. Collins

Discipline is the greatest thing in the world. Where there is no discipline, there is no character. And without character, there is no progress ...

— James C. Collins

“I ... had no need for cheering dreams," he wrote. "Facts are better than dreams.”

— James C. Collins

Enduring great companies don't exist merely to deliver returns to shareholders. Indeed, in a truly great company, profits and cash flow become like blood and water to a healthy body: They are absolutely essential for life, but they are not the very point of life.

— James C. Collins

“Put your best people on your biggest opportunities, not your biggest problems. In”

— James C. Collins

“The world is changing, and will continue to do so. But that does not mean we should stop the search for timeless principles.”

— James C. Collins

“In retirement, Smith reflected on his exceptional performance, saying simply, I never stopped trying to become qualified for the job.”

— James C. Collins

“The main point is first get the right people on the bus (and wrong people off the bus) before you figure out where to drive it. The second key point is the degree of sheer rigor in people decisions in order to take a company from Good to Great.”

— James C. Collins

“An organization is not truly great, if it cannot be great without you.”

— James C. Collins

“The drive for progress doesn't wait for the external world to say "It's time to change."”

— James C. Collins

“Smart people instinctively understand the dangers of entrusting our future to self-serving leaders who use our institutions, whether in the corporate or social sectors, to advance their own interests.”

— James C. Collins

If you have a charismatic cause you don't need to be a charismatic leader.

— James C. Collins

“No matter what. Wherever your mind wanders, it seems to turn up at the same Field of Dreams. It's the vision you wake up with in the morning, and it's the last thing you picture before you fall asleep. Everytime you think of it, the idea in your head seems to get more vivid, filled in with more detail: You not only want to win a gold medal at the Olympics, you not only can see yourself standing there on the podium, but you can also feel the goose bumps as your national anthem is played; the tears are in your eyes. (That's how real a dream can be and should be)”

— James C. Collins

“The moment you feel the need to tightly manage someone, you've made a hiring mistake. The best people don't need to be managed. Guided, taught, led-yes. But not tightly managed.”

— James C. Collins

“Profit is like oxygen, food, water, and blood for the body; they are not the point of life, but without them, there is no life.”

— James C. Collins

Be rigorous about your HR decisions. There is a difference between rigorous and ruthless.

— James C. Collins

“Dreams make you click, juice you, turn you on, excite the living daylights out of you. You cannot wait to get out of bed to continue pursuing your dream. The kind of dream I'm talking about gives meaning to your life. it is the ultimate motivator.”

— James C. Collins

“There is a sense of exhilaration that comes from facing head-on the hard truths and saying, "We will never give up. We will never capitulate. It might take a long time, but we will find a way to prevail."”

— James C. Collins

“Good is the enemy of great. And that's one of the key reasons why we have so little that becomes great.”

— James C. Collins

“It's more important than ever to define yourself in terms of what you stand for rather than what you make, because what you make is going to become outmoded faster than it has at any time in the past ... hang on to the idea of who you are as a company, and focus not on what you do, but on what you could do. By being really clear about what you stand for and why you exist, you can see what you could do with a much more open mind. You enhance your ability to adapt to change.”

— James C. Collins

“Throw leaders into an extreme environment, and it will separate the stark differences between greatness and mediocrity.”

— James C. Collins

“You absolutely must have the discipline not to hire until you find the right people.”

— James C. Collins

Some managers are uncomfotable with expressing emotion about their dreams, but it's the passion and emotion that will attract and motivate others.

— James C. Collins

“The secret to a successful retirement is to find your retirement sweet spot. The sweet spot is where your passions, what you do best, and what people will pay you to do overlap.”

— James C. Collins

“Focusing solely on what you can potentially do better than any other organization is the only path to greatness.”

— James C. Collins

“Those who turn good organizations into great organizations are motivated by a deep creative urge and an inner compulsion for sheer unadulterated excellence for its own sake.”

— James C. Collins

“Discipline is consistency of action.”

— James C. Collins

Building a visionary company requires one percent vision and 99 percent alignment.

— James C. Collins

“The most effective leaders of companies in transition are the quiet, unassuming people whose inner wiring is such that the worst circumstances bring out their best. They're unflappable, they're ready to die if they have to. But you can trust that, when bad things are happening, they will become clearheaded and focused.”

— James C. Collins

“People are not your most important asset ... the right people are.”

— James C. Collins

“The greatest leaders build organizations that, in the end, don't need them.”

— James C. Collins

If we allow the celebrity rock-star model of leadership to triumph, we will see the decline of corporations and institutions of all types. The twentieth century was a century of greatness, but we face the very real prospect that the next century will see very few enduring great institutions.

— James C. Collins

“It took Einstein ten years of groping through the fog to get the theory of special relativity, and he was a bright guy.”

— James C. Collins

“A great company will have many once-in-a-liftetime opportunities.”

— James C. Collins