The new studyGreat by Choice distinguishes itself from Collins's prior work by its focus not
just on performance but also on the type of unstable environments faced by leaders today. With
a team of more than twenty researchers Collins and Hansen studied companies that rose to
greatness?beating their industry indexes by a minimum of ten times over fifteen years?in
environments characterized by big forces and rapid shifts that leaders could not predict or
control. The research team then contrasted these ?10X companies? to a carefully selected set of
comparison companies that failed to achieve greatness in similarly extreme environments. The
new findingsThe study results were full of provocative surprises. Such as: The best leaders
were not more risk taking more visionary and more creative than the comparisons they were
more disciplined more empirical and more paranoid. Innovation by itself turns out not to be
the trump card in a chaotic and uncertain world more important is the ability to scale
innovation to blend creativity with discipline. Following the belief that leading in a ?fast
world? always requires ?fast decisions? and ?fast action? is a good way to get killed. The
great companies changed less in reaction to a radically changing world than the comparison
companies. The authors challenge conventional wisdom with thought-provoking sticky and
supremely practical concepts. They include: 10Xers the 20 Mile March Fire Bullets Then
Cannonballs Leading above the Death Line Zoom Out Then Zoom In and the SMaC Recipe. Finally
in the last chapter Collins and Hansen present their most provocative and original analysis:
defining quantifying and studying the role of luck. The great companies and the leaders who
built them were not luckier than the comparisons but they did get a higher Return on Luck.
This book is classic Collins: contrarian data-driven and uplifting. He and Hansen show
convincingly that even in a chaotic and uncertain world greatness happens by choice not
chance.
