“It is your Work in life that is the ultimate seduction.”

-PABLO PICASSO

I started this post about what I have learnt in Good to Great by Jim Collins with this saying I found in the same book. These words describe the book itself and the people this author speaks about. Great book indeed, a great business book and not only, it’s a guide for life. Reading it made me rethink my own principles over life. It has a lot to teach us. As for business, it taught me that whatever you do in life you do it to sustain your inner balance and not for the money.  The most important steps I will certainly undertake in my future carrier and in life will be the following:

1.        I will strive in becoming a “self-effacing, quiet, reserved, even shy”, humble and having a professional will. I will both be a wonderful person in life and a Level 5 Leader.

2.        First Who? … Then What? Is the nr. 1 question. Getting the right people on the bus (company or life), giving them the right places and getting the wrong people from the bus is what really matters both in business and in day to day relationships.

3.        Confront the Brutal Facts (Yet Never Lose Faith). Embrace the discipline of facing the reality, whatever they might be yet always keep faith that it can be changed in time.

4.        The Hedgehog Concept (Simplicity within the Three Circles). Find what you can be best at, and go with it even if it is not your core business. Also love what you are doing.  See the picture above!

5.        A Culture of Discipline. With discipline you need no hierarchy, no bureaucracy, and no excessive controls; you just get great performance on board.

6.        Technology Accelerators. Technology is never the solely means of igniting a transformation from Good to Great. It is a secondary mean, yet a mandatory one, after having all the above factors embarked.

7.        The Flywheel. Huge successes never come over night. Working hard day by day, year by year resemble with “pushing a giant heavy flywheel in one direction, turn upon turn, building momentum until a point of breakthrough, and beyond”

8.       Finally Built To Last , the other great success of Jim Collins is a book I will absolutely read.

Good To Great is a manual both for life and business, because for Level 5 Leaders their companies are their love for life. They nurture it as if it is alive. This is what I discovered, becoming a truly great person is the ultimate goal in life.

Secolul 21 a venit, a venit bine mersi de 9 ani, si abia acum intelegem si noi, societatile post sovietice, ca Informatia si Cunostintele ( adica materia cenusie) sunt cele mai valoroase active. Asa ca azi vorbesc despre carti ce TREBUIE citite. Sigur “Cartile sunt prieteni reci, dar sunt prieteni siguri”. Nu neaparat ca veti deveni guru in afaceri dupa lectura dar Cartile au calitatea de a aprinde beculete si de a largi spectrul cunostintelor. Dupa trainingurile despre care am vorbit mai jos am venit cu o lista impunatoare de carti ce au schimbat ganduri si perspective. Va doresc lectura placuta si astept concluzii.

• 1. Alfred Chandler “Structure follows Strategy “
• 2. Marcus Buckingham “First, Break All The Rules” – “Manager Contra Curentului”
• 3. Cartilele de la Gallup sunt foarte bune
• 4. Malcolm Gladwell “The Outliners” si “The Tipping Point”
• 5. Richard Branson “Srew it, let’s do it”
• 6. Jack Trout & Al Ries “Positioning” – “Pozitionarea”
• 7. Seth Godin “The Dip”
• 8. Constantin Radulescu Motru “Psihologia poporului roman”
• 9. Paul Kennedy “Why Empires Fall”
• 10. Napoleon Hill “Think and Grow Rich”
• 11. Marcus Buckingham “The One Thing you need to know”
• 12. Jim Collins “Good to Great” and “Built to Last”
• 13. Tom Peters scrie carti foarte bune, cititi orice.
• 14.  W. Chan Kim, Renée Mauborgne “Blue Ocean Strategy”
• 15.  Henry Kissinger “Diplomatia”
• 16. Peter Drucker on the “Profession of Management”
• 17. Paul Garrison “Exponential Marketing”
• 18. Michael Fullan “Six Secrets of Change”

Cartile sunt in ordinea in care mi-au fost recomandate, puteti incepe de oriunde.

 Sa aveti pofta.