Good or Great?

Jim Collins' book Good to Great has been a very valuable resource to me and I am sure a lot of other business owners and professionals.

Have you sat down and asked yourself lately whether what you are producing is good or great? What was the last thing you did at work? Was it good or was it great?

If you're good and happy with good that's fine. Most people I talk to though are striving for great. There is a world of difference between your reality if you are good and your reality if you are great. Chad Hurley of YouTube can tell you where great gets you. When I buy a product or service I look long and hard for the great one. Seems a lot of you do too.

Core Search Group believes in the greatness of our vision: to be the best tool for companies to attract Google-quality software development talent.

Here's the text of an email I sent our team this morning:


Hey guys.

I have been reviewing the information and raters we filled out from Jim Collins' website, the author of Good to Great. If you recall this guy and a bunch of researchers did a multiyear research project to study what separates great, enduring companies that change the world from good companies that don't. I think we all agree we can be one of the great ones.

I think we can synthesize all the information in the book down to a pretty simple distinction. When we post a job, call a candidate, do a sendout, test a candidate, talk to a manager, do an innerview, etc, let's ask ourselves: "is the way I am doing this good or is it great?" Make it great.
The simple difference between the good and great companies is the great companies made a conscious choice and set a direction for greatness. Starbucks, Google, Microsoft, GE, etc. all start from one idea. Let's be the great company in our industry. Deciding this early on makes all other decisions easy. Do the great thing. Core Search Group is the great company in the recruiting space.

I really appreciate the work all of you have put into helping us be there. Obviously we have a ways to go but I see the path clearly. CSG will be ubiquitous in the software industry like Skype is in communications-clearly the best tool for the job. Let's all look at everything we do today with a critical eye. Is the action we just completed good or is it great? Is the candidate we are getting ready to send out good or great? Let's make it great.

Thanks!

DAVE