Jim Collins at the 2009 Inc. 500 Conference – Part II

September 29th, 2009 by David Link

Inspirational words in a time of great uncertainty!

After Jim finished up his presentation (to a standing ovation!) he fielded random questions from the audience and then summarized the day with 10 action items for the 1700 entrepreneurs in the audience. 

Jim, what’s on your “Stop doing” list?

For every to-do I have a corresponding not-to-do:

• I had to stop sending e-mails when I was upset and creating unnecessary flywheels – half the e-mails did more damage than good.
• Stop being online when I am actually doing work
• I stopped doing anything that would not be creative work between breakfast and noon. During that time, everything was on the stop doing list except creative work.

From your Good to Great book – what financial services companies were in your book and are they still great companies?

One financial that was really strong and is still strong is Wells Fargo. They went into this storm/tsunami strong and come out even stronger.

• The one that went the other direction is Fannie Mae – two things jump out as lessons from it.  Financial enterprises are exposed to risks that can sink a company very quickly. Also when you have the arrogance of your self righteousness…because your cause is noble your decisions are defacto very good. Bad decisions taken with noble intentions are still bad decisions.
• Ultimately Fannie Mae had a lot of below-the-waterline risks that really sunk the ship fast!

Is America over-reaching right now? Medical care for everyone – a noble cause; two simultaneous wars – overreaching?

I recently visited West Point and America was the case topic: Is America at an inflection point and which way? From great to good? This provoked an enormous debate – I meant the question as rhetorical.

• I do genuinely believe what Lincoln said about the last best hope on earth…. Where you start in life does not dictate where you end up… we are a nation of immigrants…many creating a new life in an unknown land…. This constant renewing force of emigrants is still here in the US strong.
• My second perspective is where I come down on the hopeful side.  The Chief of Staff of the Army told me that he views such great future promise based upon his perspective that “This is the most inspiring generation to go through West Point since 1945.”
• “Because of the young generation of leaders with such an inspired, dedicated view, in addition to their bent to be useful to the world, I look at younger generations and have tremendous faith in their ability to do exceptional things… so I come down hopeful. “

How do you get to be the leaders / entrepreneurs that are the future Bill Gates or Henry Fords of the world?

They have this very interesting blend – genuine unquenchable curiosity in everything they do and they question everything … it’s part of the reason that they keep growing… they have high question to statements ratios their entire lives.

• They are not necessarily smarter than others or more visionary…. They are typically more empirical than others.
• They are also relentless… why and why and why and why – and they put the empiricism and curiosity together which is much different than visionary changes.
• Relentless — A characteristic of great leaders.

Jim finished up the Q&A with a list of 10 to do’s:

1. Download his diagnostic tool and use it with your team to determine how your organizations can benefit from a Good to Great discipline to business.
2. Have a commitment to analyze key seats on your bus…
   • What percentage is filled with the right people?
   • How are you going to get it to 100%?
3. We all have a board of directors – however we all should have a personal board of directors to help us be personally introspective. “The only thing I know is if you don’t know the difference between right and wrong by age 30 you probably won’t ever know it.”
4. Get young people in your face. As stated earlier, they are our future. Learn from them!
5. Turn off your gadgets – create white space on your schedule… disciplined thought can’t happen when you have tons of intrusions… use as a pocket of quietude on your schedule each day / week.
6. Build a council where you really debate. It is the CPU from the series of decisions that turned the flywheel.
7. Have someone start tracking your questions to statements ratio.
   • Can you double in the next year?
   • In other words, don’t spend your life trying to be interesting – spend your life being interested.
8. Add starting your own “stop doing” list to your “to do” list . On any given day there are 10,000 hours of work… work is infinite and time is finite… challenge is what we don’t do
9. While companies are still growing before adults… make sure you set solid core values and purpose that are worth the sustaining dark days. Prepare the company to be great without you!
10. Set BHAGS (Big Hairy Audacious Goals) especially in bad times… Goals that are 10-15 years out, but with empirical data. Extend from the flywheel of what works with your business.

In my opinion, 10 great launching pad initiatives for building organizations that are Great vs. Good.

Dave

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