{"id":5893,"date":"2026-01-27T14:21:02","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T18:21:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=5893"},"modified":"2026-01-27T14:21:29","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T18:21:29","slug":"good-to-great-companies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/good-to-great-companies\/","title":{"rendered":"Good to Great Companies: Complete List + 5 Powerful Lessons"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What are the Good-to-Great companies featured in Jim Collins’s book Good to Great<\/a><\/em>? How did they qualify to be “good to great”? What can you learn from them?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over five years, Collins\u2019s team of 21 researchers reviewed close to 6,000 articles and generated over 2,000 pages of interview transcripts to determine whether and how companies can go from good to great. We’ll cover the good-to-great companies featured in the book and the lessons they teach us about how to take other companies from good to great.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Originally Published: December 3, 2019
Last Updated: January 27, 2026<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Methods<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

To identify clear examples of good-to-great transitions, Collins and his team searched for companies with 15-year returns equal to or below the general market that, after a distinct transition point, recorded 15-year returns at least three times better than the general market<\/strong>. They found 11 companies that met this criterion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Collins and his team then identified a \u201ccomparison company\u201d for each good-to-great company. The criteria for comparison companies were that (1) they were similarly resourced and situated as their relative good-to-great companies, and (2) their returns remained at or below the general market return after the transition point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The researchers also examined six \u201cunsustained comparisons\u201d\u2014companies that beat the market after the transition point but failed to sustain those results across the full 15-year threshold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Criticisms and Collins\u2019s Response<\/strong>

Collins treads familiar ground in Good to Great<\/em>, using a method similar to the one he employed in his first book, Built to Last<\/em><\/a> (1994): He and coauthor Jerry I. Porras compared high-performing companies to competitors that didn\u2019t have the same level of success<\/a> over a set period of time. The objective was to find commonalities between the enduring companies and unlock the secrets behind sustained greatness. But while both Built to Last <\/em>and Good to Great<\/em> have sold millions of copies and were included on TIME<\/em>\u2019s list of the 25 Most Influential Business Management Books<\/a>, some experts are skeptical of Collins\u2019s work<\/a>.\u00a0

In The Halo Effect<\/em><\/a>, business professor Phil Rosenzweig details the \u201cbusiness delusions\u201d espoused by magazines and management books, including those by Collins. Rosenzweig and other critics argue that Collins\u2019s research often relies on retrospective accounts, interviews, and media coverage, which can be colored by perceptions of success<\/a>. Critics also point out that selecting companies already known to perform well risks attributing causation to traits that follow<\/em> from success<\/em> rather than drive it. Others suggest that luck or randomness could explain many of the patterns Collins identifies, and that the book has deluded some CEOs<\/a> into thinking that success is simply a matter of following a formula.

For his part, Collins emphasizes the rigorousness of his research<\/a>. He also stresses that his findings show correlations, not definitive causes, and presents them as evidence-based observations for readers to consider thoughtfully, rather than as prescriptive or universally predictive rules.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Companies<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The 11 companies Collins describes as having gone \u201cfrom good to great\u201d are listed below. Comparison companies are in parentheses, followed by the companies\u2019 industries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n