书名：Great by Choice 选择卓越
作者：Jim Collins；Morten T. Hansen
出版社名称：HarperBusiness
出版时间：2011
语种：英文
ISBN：9780062120991
商品尺寸：15.2 x 2.7 x 22.9 cm
包装：精装
页数：320

在畅销书《从优秀到卓越》出版10年后，吉姆·柯林斯再次推出了一部具有开创性意义的著作Great by Choice《选择卓越》，这次提出的问题是：为什么有的公司能够在充满不确定性乃至混乱的环境中实现蓬勃发展，而有的公司则不能？作者在美国2万多家公司中进行了11层筛选，找出7家安然度过产业逆境与动荡的企业。基于长达9年的研究、严格的分析和具有吸引力的故事，柯林斯和他的同事莫滕·汉森列出了在一个不可预测的、动荡不安的、瞬息万变的时代打造一家真正卓越企业的原则。

精彩书评：
“这是一本研究在相同的环境下，为什么结果不同的书，是一本研究在动荡环境中，如何通过‘选择’来创造伟大公司的管理著作。这本书不是强调如何行动，而是强调如何选择。” ——锡恩咨询集团董事长 姜汝祥

“本书中关于子弹与炮弹的比喻十分有说服力，对盖茨和微软WINDOWS、乔布斯和苹果IPOD的这两个脍炙人口的成功案例回顾中，揭开了常被无限崇拜的两个神奇崛起的面纱，还原了两个尝试、修订、放大、调整的领导者的本来，这种走下神坛，不是英雄褪色，而是常识落地，更消除了对于我们所从事的商业和管理行当那种‘巫术’般的神秘误读，让可学习性、可应用性大大增强。这也让创业者和企业家更有信心。” ——清华大学经济管理学院高级副院长 清华领导力中心主任  杨斌

“这本书颠覆了很多对于成就卓越企业的错误判断，尤其是重新反思实现流行的创新和变革对于企业的意义。” ——《商业价值》杂志出版人  刘湘明

“取得成功是一回事儿。但是，要想在充满剧变、破坏和动荡的经济环境中取得成功，就要另当别论了。那么，一些公司是如何在这样的环境下成功的呢？管理大师吉姆·柯林斯披露了其中的玄机。” ——《财富》

“这本书为那些深受宏观经济危机冲击的公司提供了有意义的、合时宜的信息。” ——《金融时报》

“通过研究，柯林斯和汉森得出了一些有趣的且有违直觉的结论……这绝不是枯燥的社会科学。柯林斯先生善于驾驭文字，其中尤以隐喻见长。”——《华尔街日报》

“企业家和商业领导者或许会在本书中发现有用的概念，而在决策中运用这些概念将会提升他们打造卓越公司的几率。”——《书目》杂志

Ten years after the worldwide bestseller Good to Great, Jim Collins returns with another groundbreaking work, this time to ask: why do some companies thrive in uncertainty, even chaos, and others do not? Based on nine years of research, buttressed by rigorous analysis and infused with engaging stories, Collins and his colleague Morten Hansen enumerate the principles for building a truly great enterprise in unpredictable, tumultuous and fast-moving times. This book is classic Collins: contrarian, data-driven and uplifting.

Review
“Entrepreneurs and business leaders may find the concepts in this book useful for making choices to increase their odds of building a great company.”  —Booklist

“Collins and Hansen draw some interesting and counterintuitive conclusions from their research.... far from a dry work of social science. Mr. Collins has a way with words, not least with metaphor.” —Wall Street Journal

“A sensible, well-timed and precisely targeted message for companies shaken by macroeconomic crises”  —Financial Times

如何在一个不可预测的、动荡不安的、瞬息万变的时代打造一家真正卓越的企业？这是《选择卓越》这本书的主题。

《选择卓越》不同于柯林斯先前的著作，这是因为它的关注重点不仅仅在业绩表现上，还在时下领导者所面临的不稳定的环境类型上。基于超过20人的研究团队，柯林斯和汉森对那些在充满巨大力量和急剧变革——这都是领导者所无法预测或控制的——的环境中取得卓越成就的公司进行了研究。研究结果颇具争议性，亦让人感到吃惊。比如，优秀的领导者并不比对比组公司的领导者更具冒险精神、更具远见或更具创造性；他们更恪守纪律，更注重实证验证，更为焦虑。

在一个混乱的、充满不确定性的世界里，创新本身并不是一张王牌，更重要的是适度创新的能力和将创造性与纪律相结合的能力。

通过引人深思的、黏性的和有力的实践概念，作者对传统智慧发起了挑战。这些概念包括：10倍速领导者；20英里征程；先发射子弹，后发射炮弹；超越生死线；先将镜头拉远，后将镜头拉近；以及SMaC方法。

柯林斯和汉森在《选择卓越》的末尾一章向读者呈现了他们具有争议和新颖的分析：对运气角色的定义、量化和研究。卓越公司及其领导者并不比对比组公司及其领导者更有运气，但却获得了更高的运气回报率。本书是典型的柯林斯式著作：反传统、数据驱动、振奋人心。他和汉森以令人信服的证据表明，即便是在一个混乱的、充满不确定性的世界里，卓越也可以通过选择而非运气来实现。

吉姆·柯林斯，出版过《从优秀到卓越》、《基业长青》和《再造卓越》等著作，全球销量超过1,000万册。柯林斯的研究和教职生涯始于斯坦福大学商学院，并于1992年荣膺该校杰出教学奖。目前，他在科罗拉多州的博尔德运营一家管理实验室，主要开展研究和教学工作，并为企业界和社会部门的高管提供咨询服务。
Jim Collins is author or coauthor of six books that have sold in total more than ten million copies worldwide, including the bestsellersGood to Great,Built to Last, andHow the Mighty Fall. Jim began his research and teaching career on the faculty at Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he received the Distinguished Teaching Award in 1992. He now operates a management laboratory in Boulder, Colorado, where he conducts research, teaches, and consults with executives from the corporate and social sectors.

莫滕·T·汉森，加州大学伯克利分校（信息学院）和欧洲工商管理学院的管理学教授。他毕业于斯坦福大学商学院，拥有博士学位，就读博士期间为富布赖特学者，后曾在哈佛商学院担任过教授。他是《协作》一书的作者，同时也是《管理科学季刊》学术贡献奖的获得者——该奖用以表彰他对组织研究的卓越贡献。作为波士顿咨询公司的前经理，莫滕现在为世界各地的公司提供咨询服务，并开展演讲活动。
Morten T. Hansen is a management professor at University of California, Berkeley. Formerly a professor at Harvard Business School and INSEAD (France), professor Hansen holds a PhD from Stanford Business School, where he was a Fulbright scholar. Hansen was also a manager at the Boston Consulting Group, where he advised corporate clients worldwide. He is the coauthor (with Jim Collins) of theNew York Times bestsellerGreat by Choice and the author of the booksCollaboration and Great at Work. We caught up with him to discuss the latter book.

We cannot predict the future. But we can create it.
Thinkback to 15 years ago, and consider what’s happened since, the destabilizing events—in the world, in your country, in the markets, in your work, in your life—that defied all epcc1ations. We can be astonished, confounded, shocked, stunned, delighted, or terrified, but rare1 prescient. None of us can predict with certainty the twists and turns our lives will take. Life is uncertain, the future unknown. This is neither good nor bad.It just is, like gravity. Yet the task remains: how to master our own fate, even so.
We began the nine-year research project behind this book in 2002, when America awoke from its false sense of stability, safety, and wealth entitlement. The long-running bull market crashed. The government budget surplus flipped back to deficits. The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, horrified and enraged people everywhere; and war followed. Meanwhile, throughout the world, technological change and global competition continued their relentless, disruptive march.
All of this led us to a simple question: Why do some companies thrive in uncertainty, even chaos, and others don’t?When buffeted by tumultuous events, when hit by big, fast-moving forces that we can neither predict nor control, what distinguishes those who perform exceptionallywell from those who underperform or worse?
We don’t choose study questions. They choose us. Sometimes one of the questions just grabs us around the throat and growls, “I’m not going to release my grip and let you breathe until you answer me!” This study grabbed us because of our own persistent angst and gnawing sense of vulnerability in a world that feels increasingly disordered.The question wasn’t just intellectually interesting hit personally relevant. And as we spent time with our students and worked with leaders in both the business and social sectors, we sensed the same angst in them, in the intervening years, events have served only to reinforce this sense of unease. What’s coming next? All we know is that no one knows.
Yet some companies and leaders navigate this type of world exceptionally well.They don’t merely react; they create.They don’t merely survive; they prevail. They don’t merely succeed; they thrive. They build great enterprises that can endure. We do not believe that chaos, uncertainty, and instability are good; companies, leaders, organizations, and societies do not thrive on chaos. But they can thrive in chaos.