THRESHOLDThe limitlessness of

LIMIT.Extract of Book Good to Great

MAJOR (RETD.) PRAVIN SINGH

THE CHALLENGE

• By defining the management study of nineties, it has showed that great companies triumph over time and how long term sustained performance can be engineered into the DNA of an enterprise from the beginning.

NOT BORN WITH GREAT DNA??? How can good companies or enterprise

or mediocre companies and even bad companies achieve enduring greatness?????

How do companies defy gravity and convert long term mediocrity or worse into long term superiority?

What are universal distinguishing characteristics that cause a company to Cross the THRESHOLD and take a leap while others can’t.

GOOD IS THE ENEMY OF GREAT

That's the key reason why so less become great.

It is remarkable to note so many companies who have been utterly unremarkable, seemingly out of no

where------ BANG. Then they CLIMB ..CLIMB..CLIMB and

CLIMB and just keep CLIMBING.

THRESHOLD

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GREATGeneral marketDirect comparsion

TRANSITION TIME

WALGREENS$1 invested in Walgreens beat

tech superstar intel by nearly two times.

It beat General Electric five times, Coca Cola by eight times, and General stock market by fifteen times.

COMPARED TO WHAT??

They were compared to ‘direct comparisons’ and ‘unsustained comparisons’.

Question is not what is common between them, but what is that made this difference.

Gold medal winners and loosers both have a coach, but what is that difference that makes one a winner?

INSIDE THE BLACK BOXWHAT’S

INSIDE THE BLACK BOX?

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BASIS OF RESEARCH Strategy. Technology. Leadership. Interview of executives of transition period. Qualitative to quantitative anlyses looking at

acquisition to executive compensation, financial ratios to management turnover.

DOGS THAT DID NOT BARK

Special note of the unsustained comparison who started climbing but could not sustain the climb. Dogs that did not bark.

‘The adventure of Silver Blaze’ Sherlock Holmes.

Dogs that did not bark turned out to be the best clues.

WHAT WAS NOT FOUND INSIDE THE BLACK BOX Larger than life celebrity leaders who

came from outside. All the leaders were from within the co.

No systematic pattern linking specific forms of executive packages.

Stategery per se.

WHAT WAS NOT FOUND INSIDE THE BLACK BOX THEY DID NOT FOCUS ON WHAT TO DO INSTEAD

FOCUSED ON WHAT NOT TO DO AND WHAT TO ‘STOP DOING’.

TECH DID NOT IGNITE THE TRANSFORMATION, IT ACCELERATED IT.

THEY PAID SCANT ATTENTION TO MANAGING CHANGE, MOTIVATING PEOPLE AND CREATING ALINGMENT.

NO NAME, TAG LINE, LAUNCH EVENT OR PROGRAM SIGNIFIED THEIR TRANSFORMATION.

WHAT WAS NOT FOUND INSIDE THE BLACK BOXMERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS

PLAYED VIRTUALLY NO ROLE IN IGNITING TRANSFORMATION.

THEY WERE NEVER BY AND LARGE IN GREAT INDUSTRIES. SOME WERE IN TERRIBLE INDUSTRIES.

CHAOS TO CONCEPT:‘FLYWHEEL CONCEPT’

DISCIPLINED PEOPLE DISCIPLINED THOUGHT DISCIPLINED ACTION

CULTURE OF

DISCIPLINE

HEDGEHOG CONCEPT

LEVEL 5 LEADERSHIP

1 ST WHO..

THEN WHAT

CONFRONT THE BRUTAL

FACTSTECH

ACCELATOR

FLYWHEEL

LEVEL 5 LEADERSHIPSelf effacing, quiet, reserved, shy---

Paradoxical blend of personal humility and professional will.

More like Lincon and Socrates than Patton or Ceasor.

FIRST WHO….. THEN WHAT They do not begin by setting a new vision or

strategy.

They begin with right people on the bus, wrong people off the bus, right people in right seat.

And then they decide where to drive.

People are your most imp asset? Wrong…. Right people are your most imp asset.

CONFRONT THE BRUTAL FACTS (Yet never loose faith) Lesson from prisnor of war, what no corporate

strategy defined. Stockdale concept. Maintain unwavering faith that you can and will

prevail in the end, regardless of difficulties, AND at the same time Have the discipline to

confront the most brutal facts of your current realities, whatever they might be.

HEDGEHOG CONCEPT(Simplicity within three circles) Greatness requires transcending the curse of

competence. Just because something is your core

business--Just because you are doing it for years----or even decades—does not necessarily mean you can be best in world at it.

And if you cannot be the best in the world at your business, then your core business absolutely cannot form basis of a great company.

It must be replaced with a simple concept that reflects deep understanding of three intersecting circles.

CULTURE OF DISCIPLINE All companies have a culture, some companies

have discipline, but few companies have a CULTURE OF DISCIPLINE.

When you have disciplined people you don’t need HIERARCHY.

When you have disciplined thought you don’t need BUREAUCRACY.

When you have disciplined action you don’t need EXCESSIVE CONTROL.

CULTURE OF DISCIPLINEWhen we combine

A CULTURE OF DISCIPLINEwith

AN ETHIC OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP,

we get the MAGICAL ALCHEMY OF GREAT

PERFORMANCE.

TECHNOLOGY ACCELERATORS

Tech never the primary means of igniting a transformation.

Yet they are pioneers in application of carefully selected technology.

Technology is never the root cause of greatness or decline.

THE FLY WHEEL AND DOOM LOOP Revolution,dramatic changes,restructuring

fails to take a leap. There is no single defining action,grand

program, no one killer innovation, no solitary lucky break, no miracle moment.

Rather the process resembled relentlessly pushing a giant heavy flywheel in one direction, turn upon turn,building momentum until a point of breakthrough, and beyond.

LEVEL 5 LEADERSHIPFIRST WHO….. THEN WHAT

CONFRONT THE BRUTAL FACTS (Yet never loose faith)

HEDGEHOG CONCEPT(Simplicity within three circles)

CULTURE OF DISCIPLINE

TECHNOLOGY ACCELERATORS

THE FLY WHEEL AND DOOM LOOP