Great by Choice: Uncertainty, Chaos, and Luck-Why Some Thrive Despite Them All

Jim Collins has published multiple international bestsellers that have sold in total more than 11 million copies worldwide, including the perennial favorite Good to Great. His writings and teachings are based on extensive research projects designed to uncover timeless principles of human endeavor and have had a lasting impact across all sectors of society. All of Jim’s books share a common thread: the study of people and how they navigate the big questions of leadership and life.  

Morten T. Hansen is a management professor at the University of California, Berkeley (School of Information), and at INSEAD. Formerly a professor at Harvard Business School, Morten holds a PhD from Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he was a Fulbright scholar. He is the author of Collaboration and the winner of the Administrative Science Quarterly Award for exceptional contributions to the field of organization studies. Previously a manager with the Boston Consulting Group, Morten consults and gives talks for companies worldwide.

Praise for Good to Great: “This carefully researched and well-written book disproves most of the current management hype—from the cult of the superhuman CEO to the cult of IT to the acquisitions and merger mania. It will not enable mediocrity to become competence. But it should enable competence to become excellence. - Peter Drucker

“A book CEOs can’t wait to buy.” - USA Today

“Collins and his research team have been tackling one of the biggest questions business has to offer.” - Fortune

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

“With both Good to Great and Built to Last, Mr. Collins delivers two seductive messages: that great management is attainable by mere mortals and that its practitioners can build great institutions. It’s just what mortals want to hear.” - Wall Street Journal

“The difference is how hard Mr. Collins works to arrive at his simple conclusions. They are based on years of detailed, empirical research and are all the more powerful for producing such unexpected results.” - Financial Times

“The Business Idea of the year.” - Fast Company

“Collins again as written a book that seems built to last.” - BusinessWeek

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

“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