Jim Collins

Jim Collins is a student and teacher of what makes great companies tick, and a Socratic advisor to leaders in the business and social sectors. Having invested more than a quarter-century in rigorous research, he has authored or coauthored six books that have sold in total more than 10 million copies worldwide. They include Good to Great, Built to Last, How the Mighty Fall, and Great by Choice.

Driven by a relentless curiosity, Jim began his research and teaching career on the faculty at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he received the Distinguished Teaching Award in 1992. In 1995, he founded a management laboratory in Boulder, Colorado.

In addition to his work in the business sector, Jim has a passion for learning and teaching in the social sectors, including education, healthcare, government, faith-based organizations, social ventures, and cause-driven nonprofits.

In 2012 and 2013, he had the honor to serve a two-year appointment as the Class of 1951 Chair for the Study of Leadership at the United States Military Academy at West Point. In 2017, Forbes selected Jim as one of the 100 Greatest Living Business Minds.

Jim has been an avid rock climber for more than forty years and has completed single-day ascents of El Capitan and Half Dome in Yosemite Valley.

Collins has introduced a range of new concepts and terms to the leadership lexicon. These include “level 5 leadership”, where leaders put the cause of their organization first, and inspired standards – rather than inspiring personality – become the motivation. He also created the “flywheel” principle of sustained momentum, demonstrating that the building of any human enterprise is not about one single defining action, or one killer innovation; instead, it is a process that resembles relentlessly pushing a giant, heavy flywheel, gradually building momentum.

Publications

Books

• 1992: Beyond Entrepreneurship: Turning Your Business into an Enduring Great Company by James C. Collins and William C. Lazier
• 1994: Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies by James C. Collins and Jerry I. Porras
• 2001: Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap … And Others Don’t by James C. Collins
• 2005: Good to Great and the Social Sectors by James C. Collins
• 2009: How the Mighty Fall: And Why Some Companies Never Give In by James C. Collins[11]
• 2011: Great By Choice by James C. Collins and Morten T. Hansen
• 2019: Turning the Flywheel: A Monograph to Accompany Good to Great by James C. Collins
• 2020: BE 2.0 (Beyond Entrepreneurship 2.0): Turning Your Business into an Enduring Great Company by James C. Collins and William C. Lazier