Good is enemy of great… with Spiros Margaris

“Elite companies do things differently”

This is what Jim C. Collins stated in his 2001 bestseller “Good to Great”.

So what makes great FinTech, InsurTech & HealthTech businesses, when the incumbents’ lens has turned towards operational resilience today.

What will make great companies tomorrow when the focus needs to remain on business model reinvention.

In this video, Spiros discusses this very specific topic during this 45-minute-webinar and shares great tips for entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs, thinking about ways to drive competitive advantage in a changing world.

The key pillars of the book we covered included:

1. Leadership
2. Talent and culture
3. The uncomfortable truths – from good and less good ones
4. Technology as an accelerant of growth
5. How best to combine all the above to yield winning strategies.

 

 

Some really great quotes from Jim C. Collins listed below were discussed:

 

The good-to-great leaders never wanted to become larger-than-life heroes. They never aspired to be put on a pedestal or become unreachable icons. They were seemingly ordinary people quietly producing extraordinary results.

 

Great vision without great people is irrelevant.

 

A company should limit its growth based on its ability to attract enough of the right people.

 

The moment you feel the need to tightly manage someone, you’ve made a hiring mistake.

Indeed, the real question is not, “Why greatness?” but “What work makes you feel compelled to try to create greatness?” If you have to ask the question, “Why should we try to make it great? Isn’t success enough?” then you’re probably engaged in the wrong line of work.”

 

Good is the enemy of great. And that is one of the key reasons why we have so little that becomes great. We don’t have great schools, principally because we have good schools. We don’t have great government, principally because we have good government. Few people attain great lives, in large part because it is just so easy to settle for a good life.

 

Greatness is not a function of circumstance. Greatness, it turns out, is largely a matter of conscious choice, and discipline.

 

Thank you to Spiros Margaris for engaging with the inspiring quotes from Jim C. Collins we identify to lightened up the session.