Collins, Jim 1958- (James C. Collins, James Charles Collins)

PERSONAL:

Born 1958, in Boulder, CO. Education: Attended Stanford University. Hobbies and other interests: Rock climbing.

ADDRESSES:

E-mail—jimcollins@jimcollins.com.

CAREER:

Consultant, lecturer, writer, and educator. Stanford School of Business, Stanford, CA, faculty member, c. 1990s; business management laboratory, Boulder, CO, founder, 1995—. Also worked with social sector organizations, including Johns Hopkins Medical School, the Girl Scouts of the USA, the Leadership Network of Churches, the American Association of K-12 School Superintendents, and the U.S. Marine Corps.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Distinguished Teaching Award, Stanford School of Business, 1992.

WRITINGS:

AS JAMES C. COLLINS

(With William C. Lazier) Beyond Entrepreneurship: Turning Your Business into an Enduring Great Company, Prentice Hall (Englewood Cliffs, NJ), 1992.

(With Jerry I. Porras) Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies, HarperBusiness (New York, NY), 1994.

(With William C. Lazier) Managing the Small to Mid-Sized Company: Concepts and Cases, Irwin (Chicago, IL), 1995.

AS JIM COLLINS

Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap—and Others Don't, HarperBusiness (New York, NY), 2001.

Also author of the monograph Good to Great and the Social Sectors: A Monograph to Accompany Good to Great, self-published by author, 2005. Contributor to periodicals, including Fortune, Wall Street Journal, Business Week, Harvard Business Review, and Fast Company. Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap—and Others Don't has been translated into fifteen languages.

ADAPTATIONS:

Good to Great has been adapted for audio, HarperAudio, 2005.

SIDELIGHTS:

Jim Collins is an expert in business and company growth and author of Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap—and Others Don't, which spent five years on best-seller lists and has been published throughout the world. In his book, Collins writes about eleven successful companies—including Fannie Mae, Walgreens, and Kroger—that went from fifteen years of low or marginal stock market returns and then reached a turning point followed by fifteen years of earning at least three times the standard market returns. Collins analyzes the similarities among these companies and provides a business tutorial on how other companies can also become similarly successful. "While some of the overall findings are counterintuitive … many of Collins's perspectives on running a business are amazingly simple and commonsense," wrote a Publishers Weekly contributor. According to some reviewers, Good to Great is more than just a book about good business. For example, Mickey Butts, writing in the Nation, commented: "This isn't your average one-idea, case-study-choked business book. In fact, Collins says he's not writing about business problems at all but rather human problems." In a review in Power-sports Business, Joe Delmont pointed to what he saw as Collins's fundamental key to business success, noting: "Perhaps most interesting is Collins' contention that greatness comes from leaders and people, not from products nor acquisitions nor technology." Echoing a general consensus among critics, a PR Week contributor referred to the book as "a must-read for all business-school students, new hires, and aspiring leaders."

Collins also wrote and self-published a monograph titled Good to Great and the Social Sectors: A Monograph to Accompany Good to Great. Commenting on the thirty-five-page booklet in Newsweek International, Daniel McGinn noted: "Drawing on examples such as the Girl Scouts and the Cleveland Orchestra, he explains tactics to cajole rather than boss around a low-paid volunteer work force. He explains how clearly articulated goals and formal measurement can replace financial metrics."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

ABA Bank Marketing, May, 2003, Walt Albro, "What's So Gr-r-r-reat about Your Bank?," interview with author, p. 28.

Booklist, September 1, 2001, David Rouse, review of Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap—and Others Don't, p. 25; November 1, 2001, Brad Hooper, review of Good to Great, p. 452.

Chronicle of Philanthropy, December 8, 2005, Caroline Preston, review of Good to Great and the Social Sectors: A Monograph to Accompany Good to Great; February 9, 2006, Phil Buchanan, "A Business Guru's Helpful Advice," interview with author, p. 35.

Denver Business Journal, June 15, 2001, Doug McPherson, "Collins' Business Philosophy Is ‘Built to Last,’" interview with author, p. 11A.

Denver Post, May 12, 2006, Will Shanley, "Business Guru Offers Insights to Denver Audience."

Economist, July 24, 2004, "Built to Last; Jim Collins," profile of author, p. 76.

HRMagazine, July, 2005, review of Good to Great, p. S39.

Industrial Safety & Hygiene News, August, 2002, Scott Geller, review of Good to Great, p. 6.

Information Outlook, December, 2001, review of Good to Great, p. 14.

Journal of Property Management, November-December, 2006, review of Good to Great, p. 46.

Library Journal, August, 2001, Richard Drezen, review of Good to Great, p. 125.

Management Today, October 9, 2006, review of Good to Great and the Social Sectors, p. 23.

Nation, November 26, 2001, Mickey Butts, review of Good to Great, p. 38.

Newsweek International, December 19, 2005, Daniel McGinn, review of Good to Great and the Social Sectors, p. 32.

Newsweek, June 23, 2003, Adam Bryant, review of Good to Great, p. 50; December 12, 2005, Daniel McGinn, review of Good to Great and the Social Sectors, p. 46.

Official Board Markets, March 29, 2003, John Nocero, "‘Good’ Is ‘Great's’ Enemy, Collins Says: Ten Timeless Principles Must Be Recognized," p. 16.

Personnel Today, October, 28, 2003, Jane King, "People before Strategy Is Key to Greatness," discusses author lecture, p. 4.

Powersports Business, July 26, 2004, Joe Delmont, review of Good to Great, p. 6.

PR Week, June 2, 2003, review of Good to Great, p. 32.

Publishers Weekly, September 3, 2001, review of Good to Great, p. 78.

Reeves Journal, August, 2002, review of Good to Great, p. 6.

School Administrator, December, 2003, Carlotta Mast, "Q&A with Jim Collins: The Best-Selling Author Talks about Moving Schools from Good to Great," p. 29.

T&D, August, 2002, John Cone, "Built to Be Great: T & D Talks with Jim Collins about What It Takes to Go from Good to Great," p. 22; October, 2003, Ernest Gundling, review of Good to Great, p. 69.

ONLINE

FastCompany.com,http://www.fastcompany.com/ (March 27, 2007), "Web-Exclusive Interview: Good Questions, Great Answers,"

Jim Collins Home Page,http://www.jimcollins.com (March 27, 2007).

Thinkers 50,http://www.thinkers50.com/ (March 27, 2007), "Jim Collins."