63 pages • 2 hours read
Jim CollinsGood to Great
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2001A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Chapter 5Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 5 Summary: “The Hedgehog Concept (Simplicity Within the Three Circles)”
Collins opens this chapter with a question: “Are you a hedgehog or a fox?” (90). He elaborates on the relevance of this question by explaining the symbolic difference between a hedgehog and a fox; the former is a simple, unassuming animal with the ability to “simplify a complex world into a single organizing idea” (91), while the latter is a crafty, sleek animal that pursues solutions in a complex, disjointed manner. Good-to-great companies are hedgehogs.
Collins defines the “Hedgehog Concept” as the ability to focus on a “simple, crystalline concept that guide[s] all [a company’s] efforts” (95). This flows from a profound understanding of three intersecting circles: (1) what you can be best in the world at, (2) what you are deeply passionate about, and (3) what drives your economic engine. Collins clarifies that the Hedgehog Concept is “not a goal, strategy, or intention; it is an understanding” (119).
As Collins details the findings relative to the Hedgehog Concept, he emphasizes the importance of understanding the “best in the world” as the highest possible standard for a company. More than simply being competent at many different things, a good-to-great company focuses intensely on what it can do better than anyone else. Walgreens, for instance, believed it could become the best convenient drugstore. For Kimberly-Clark, the focus was on becoming the best in the world at consumer-based paper products. According to Collins, this narrowed-down focus often only emerged after a four-year process, and the process of staying focused relied on a core team’s (“the Council’s”) constant return to debate and dialogue.
Chapter 5 Analysis
In this chapter, Collins selects a metaphorical image (the hedgehog) to represent one of the book’s most recurring elements; the Hedgehog Concept serves as a common thematic thread for many of the remaining chapters. Contrary to a term like “Level 5 leader,” the Hedgehog Concept finds its central meaning in symbolism. By selecting the hedgehog, Collins implies that good-to-great companies are at once unassuming and uncommon.
Furthermore, the image serves to simplify the concept of a company focusing on “one big thing,” which is a common trend among good-to-great companies. In this chapter, Collins limits the use of business jargon, even when discussing economic denominators, in order to continually highlight the importance of the three intersecting circles that comprise a company’s Hedgehog Concept. This allows Collins to again use the Hedgehog Concept not only as a business prescription, but also as a tool for interpreting your personal life.
Thematically, this chapter again focuses on the power of belief. For all its simplicity and straightforwardness, the Hedgehog Concept incites a bold question: What can we do better than anyone else in the world? The very premise of this question is grounded in belief—in the idea that it is possible to be the absolute, undisputed best at something. For Collins, the “best” is not a matter of charisma or popularity, but of data-driven results that prove a company’s economic greatness.
Related Titles
By Jim Collins
