As a senior college student, I am taking my final, captstone classes: HTM 490 and HTM 491. Both classes are extremely similar. They both focus on being a better leader within the workplace. In the book, Good to Great, by Jim Collins, chapter 5 focuses on the Hedgehog Concept. The concept focuses on 3 overlapping circles: what you are deeply passionate about, what drives your economic engine, and what you can be the best in the world at. In my HTM 490 class, we are looking at great companies and researching their best practices, as well as looking at unsucessful businesses and the strategies behind their collapse. The two classes overlap in understanding that what distinguishes a good company from a great one, is the idea that those great companies have found what they are best in the world at. These companies understand what they do well and focus their practices on that strength.
For example, my group researched Trader Joe's and found that it is a great company because of its practice at being a low-cost but high quality grocery store. When Joe Coulombe bought the company, he did a SWOT analysis to find that there were two major social trends at the time: consumers wanted a shopping experience and global travel was increasing, causing a want for more unique foods. Trader Joe's is a seller of trendy, innovative, and environmentally-friendly products. Its success is due to the fact that they provide a shopping experience offering food from around the world, just what consumers wanted. They have found what they are good at and focus their business practices on being the best at it and even better, they are passionate about their products. Trader joe's is with the three circles.
Chapter 7, "A Culture of Disclipline" talks about "stop doing lists." It says that great companies focus on "stop doing" lists more than "to do lists." As a great company you truly have to understand what you are best and most passionate about. Even as individuals, we focus on what we have to do, but never truly focus on what are we doing that we shouldn't be doing. Success is found in emitting wrong behavior to then be able to focus clearly on our "to do lists."
All companies understand that trends are constantly changing and businesses must adapt these trends. However, as chapter 9 explains, the real struggle is to stay within the three hedgehog circles. That is how companies, like Boeing have remained great over time. Boeing never strayed from their circles (what they are the best in the world at), but found a new way to adjust their concept to still meet their core ideology.
"Preserve the core and stimulate progress."
