James C. Collins's Quotes

Companies that change best over time know first and foremost what should not change.

I am completely Socratic.

If I'm going really, really fast, I can do a page of finished text a day, on average.

Just because a company falls doesn't invalidate what we can learn by studying that company when it was at its historical best.

Not every financial company toppled during the 2008 crisis, and some seized the opportunity to take advantage of weaker competitors in the midst of the tumult.

And an integrated life is one where you're able to fit the different pieces of your life together in seamless fashion.

If I had a personal wish for the new ideas in this new book it would be that every parent, every counselor, every teacher, every professor, every sports coach that deals with young people would understand the three circle concept.

The answer I have is, you know, there a lot of things you can try to build to last. And what we try to do in our work is to come up with ideas that will last. Ideas that will stand the test of time.

The point of that is, if you look at Walgreen's history, they've always been pioneers in the application of technology. They're the only drugstore chain that I know to have their own satellite.

A magazine is simply a device to induce people to read advertising.

Be like Curious George, start with a question and look under the yellow hat to find what's there.

Ha, well you see... this notion of a balanced life, I don't think I'm ever going to be able to have that... but I can have what I call an integrated life.

If you can help other people understand those truths - and in my mind, the only way I know to do that is with large scale, multi-year research projects, where you start with a question and then very rigorously and comprehensively answer that question.

So my answer is, YES, everyone can find a hedgehog concept. If these companies can do it, anyone can do it. And anybody who says they can't is simply whining.

That the potential to become Level 5 exists in you and me and the people we work with and that it is then a process or a journey to nurture that seed... in a culture by and large that doesn't reinforce it.

The first is that instead of writing a sequel, which is what most people do, this is in fact a prequel. Although we didn't know that when we began the process.

The way you want to respond is to ask a question: Is this technology directly relevant to our hedgehog concept? If the answer is YES, then we want to become pioneers, not in the technology, but in the application of that technology specifically linked to our hedgehog concept.

There's no reason for Gillette to be world class on the web, but there's every reason for Gillette to be world class in producing billions of high powered razor blades at low cost.