Why did some firms weather the financial crisis and others not? This book investigates inner workings of over a dozen major financial and nonfinancial companies, reveals what went wrong and proposes a remedy. Regulators too must learn from past mistakes and require "constructive dialogue" for companies they supervise.

The Challenge Built to Last, the defining management study of the nineties, showed how great companies triumph over time and how long-term sustained performance can be engineered into the DNA of an enterprise from the verybeginning. But what about the company that is not born with great DNA? How can good companies, mediocre companies, even bad companies achieve enduring greatness? The Study For years, this question preyed on the mind of Jim Collins. Are there companies that defy gravity and convert long-term mediocrity or worse into long-term superiority? And if so, what are the universal distinguishing characteristics that cause a company to go from good to great? The Standards Using tough benchmarks, Collins and his research team identified a set of elite companies that made the leap to great results and sustained those results for at least fifteen years. How great? After the leap, the good-to-great companies generated cumulative stock returns that beat the general stock market by an average of seven times in fifteen years, better than twice the results delivered by a composite index of the world's greatest companies, including Coca-Cola, Intel, General Electric, and Merck. The Comparisons The research team contrasted the good-to-great companies with a carefully selected set of comparison companies that failed to make the leap from good to great. What was different? Why did one set of companies become truly great performers while the other set remained only good? Over five years, the team analyzed the histories of all twenty-eight companies in the study. After sifting through mountains of data and thousands of pages of interviews, Collins and his crew discovered the key determinants of greatness -- why some companies make the leap and others don't. The Findings The findings of the Good to Great study will surprise many readers and shed light on virtually every area of management strategy and practice. The findings include: Level 5 Leaders: The research team was shocked to discover the type of leadership required to achieve greatness. The Hedgehog Concept (Simplicity within the Three Circles): To go from good to great requires transcending the curse of competence. A Culture of Discipline: When you combine a culture of discipline with an ethic of entrepreneurship, you get the magical alchemy of great results. Technology Accelerators: Good-to-great companies think differently about the role of technology. The Flywheel and the Doom Loop: Those who launch radical change programs and wrenching restructurings will almost certainly fail to make the leap. “Some of the key concepts discerned in the study,” comments Jim Collins, "fly in the face of our modern business culture and will, quite frankly, upset some people.” Perhaps, but who can afford to ignore these findings?

We live in a values-driven world. As times change, businesses must evolve. The way that leaders have run companies for generations is no longer relevant.Today -- Purpose wins over products. Values win over features. Stories win over pitches.Everyone everywhere craves fulfillment. You must share the reason why you exist and infuse it into everything you do, in order to thrive. Many leaders see the shift in the market and make an effort to adapt. Companies quickly learn that one-off workshops and off-sites are not enough. Purpose is more than a press release. Your vision and mission statements should live in practice as well as print, and permeate through every aspect of your organization. You must close the gap between the messages you declare and the experiences you deliver. How to Lead a Values-Based Professional Services Firm shares the vital experience and valuable insights that leaders require to evolve their organizations and navigate the values-driven world we live in. Live your purpose to stay alive and build a faithful following of clients and team members. Employ your authentic values as your guide through the modern market and drive profitability. Share meaningful stories that emotionally connect with todays clientele to transform them into tomorrows brand ambassadors. 3 keys to unlock purpose and profit will enable you to turn the obstacles of the shifting market into your greatest opportunities, soar above your competitors, and grow your revenue beyond your highest projections.

There's a scene in Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass in which the Red Queen, having just led a chase with Alice in which neither seems to have moved from the spot where they began, explains to the perplexed girl: "It takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place." Evolutionary biologists have used this scene to illustrate the evolutionary arms race among competing species. William Barnett argues that a similar dynamic is at work when organizations compete, shaping how firms and industries evolve over time. Barnett examines the effects--and unforeseen perils--of competing and winning. He takes a fascinating, in-depth look at two of the most competitive industries--computer manufacturing and commercial banking--and derives some startling conclusions. Organizations that survive competition become stronger competitors--but only in the market contexts in which they succeed. Barnett shows how managers may think their experience will help them thrive in new markets and conditions, when in fact the opposite is likely to be the case. He finds that an organization's competitiveness at any given moment hinges on the organization's historical experience. Through Red Queen competition, weaker competitors fail, or they learn and adapt. This in turn heightens the intensity of competition and further strengthens survivors in an ever-evolving dynamic. Written by a leading organizational theorist, The Red Queen among Organizations challenges the prevailing wisdom about competition, revealing it to be a force that can make--and break--even the most successful organization.

This volume provides academics and professionals in business with an overview of business economics. Joyce utilizes economic theory to explain how a company functions, and draws upon the experience of modern firms to describe their operations. Topics covered include: different types of firms that exist in our economy, the different ways that a firm can grow and the limits of expansion, an analysis of various organizational forms, an economic analysis of marketing decisions and models, the process of strategic planning, special features of foreign operations, how firms raise funds, the record of mergers in the United States, the use of forecasts and their techniques, the impact of public policies and the need for business regulation, and failure, bankruptcy, and reorganization.