Turning the Flywheel: A Monograph to Accompany Good to Great by James C. Collins

Turning the Flywheel: A Monograph to Accompany Good to Great Reviews

• 
  Carl Rannaberg

  This book talks in detail about the concept of Flywheel introduced in Jim Collins' book
  Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't which I highly recommend.
  
  It provides 7 steps to capturing your own flywheel:
  1. Create a list of significant replicable successes your enterprise has achieved.
  2. Compile a list of failures and disappointments.
  3. Compare the successes to the disappointments and ask, “What do these successes and disappointments tell us about the possible components of our flywheel?”
  4. Using the components you’ve identified (keeping it to four to six), sketch the flywheel.
  5. If you have more than six components, you’re making it too complicated; consolidate and simplify to capture the essence of the flywheel.
  6. Test the flywheel against your list of successes and disappointments.
  7. Test the flywheel against the three circles of your Hedgehog Concept.
  
  After describing The Flywheel concept in detail it goes through 7 examples of Flywheels across different fields:
  1. Amazon.com Flywheel
  Lower prices on more offerings -> Increase customer visits -> Attract third-partysellers -> Expand the store, extend distribution -> Grow revenues per fixed costs
  2. Vanguard Flywheel
  Lower-cost mutual funds -> Deliver superior long-term returns for clients -> Build strong client loyalty -> Grow assets under management -> Generate economies of scale
  3. Intel Flywheel
  Design new chips that customers crave -> Price high before competition catches up -> Drive down unit costs -> Harvest profits even as prices fall -> Reinvest profits into R&D
  4. Giro Flywheel
  Invent great products -> Get elite athletes to use them -> Inspire weekend warriors -> Attract mainstream customers -> Build brand power -> Set high prices and channel profits into R&D
  5. Ware Elementary School Flywheel
  Select teachers infused with passion -> Build collaborative improvement teams -> Assess student progress, early and often -> Achieve learning, each and every kid -> Enhance reputation as a great place to teach -> Replenish the passionate-teacher pipeline
  6. Ojai Music Festival Flywheel
  Attract unconventional talent -> Unleash transcendent creativity -> Forge immersive four-day experience -> Ignite passionate reactions -> Amplify community support -> Enhance local and global reputation
  7. Cleveland Clinic Flywheel
  Get the right medical professionals -> Cultivate a collaborative patient-centered culture -> Work across specialties for best health outcomes -> Attract patients from around the world -> Fuel the resource engine -> Invest in the best facilities, research and people
  
  Besides showing real-life applications of The Flywheel Jim Collins also share a map for the journey from Good to Great. For the first time ever he ties all the principles from his books (Built to Last, Good to Great, How the Mighty Fall, Great by Choice) into one coherent whole.
  This holistic framework consists of four stages:
  Stage 1: Disciplined people
  Stage 2: Disciplined thought
  Stage 3: Disciplined action
  Stage 4: Building to last
  
  Inside the stages he describes the concepts from all of his books which you can read about in more detail on his
  website.
  
  Both the practical application of The Flywheel and also the framework of Good to Great makes this a very good and valuable book.
• 
  Stephen

  Just a 38 page pamphlet but so useful. You really need to read Good to Great first but this takes one of the key concepts from that and shows how it has been the secret of Amazon and Apple’s success.
  I’ve sketched out the flywheel for my own business now and found it really helpful in deciding on strategy and what really counts in a business so this could be one of my most worthwhile evenings ever!
  As highly recommended as you can get if you own your own business or have an employer flexible enough that you have your own flywheel where you work.
• 
  Kelly

  Just ~30 pages long and covers the "flywheel effect" concept with the perfect amount of detail and case examples.
• 
  Tomás Atilano

  ¡Qué decir de este corto, pero poderoso, libro!
  
  Para nosotros los emprendedores debe servir como una pequeña biblia de bolsillo que debemos cargar todos, y cada uno, de nuestros días en la mente.
  
  Las grandes compañías no se crearon gracias a un momento de suerte (ojo, si sacaron el máximo provecho cuando llegó), tampoco las lideró ese famoso personaje carismático que flota por los aires en las películas y tampoco tenían necesariamente las mejores ideas del mundo.
  
  Lo que si formaron fue una gigantesca Flywheel. Una tubería que estaba compuesta con ese procedimiento que lleva a la cima a un negocio.
  
  Cada elemento es consecuencia del siguiente, cada paso lleva a la misma dirección: crear un momentum imparable.
  
  Una Flywheel bien construida debe durar años, debe tener la capacidad de renovarse, de mutar, pero nunca puede parar.
  
  Mientras ella esté girando debemos crear nuestras pequeñas balas e irlas disparando hasta atinar con el resultado que queremos.
  
  En ese momento preparamos una gran bala de cañón que impulse por completo a la compañía.
  
  Que eleve nuestra Flywheel.
  
  Debemos ser disciplinados, pensar a corto y largo plazo.
  
  Tener paranoia productiva, estar siempre pensando: ¿qué pasa si?.
  
  Debemos estar preparados siempre, si no queremos decaer.
  
  De esta forma consideremos resultados, generaremos un impacto y duraremos siempre.
  
• 
  Leonardo Longo

  As an evolution of his previous books, Jim Collins shows the reader that his concepts applies to all manner and types of organizations – from small companies, to health care organizations, to non-profits, and even arts organization. It's a good add-on to the previous books, as I've always questioned if Collins principles applies to the bigtechs and the book starts after a conversation between Collins and Bezos.
  This book is all about the Flywheel effect, developed in the book Good to Great, and the author presents this monograph that serves as a guide to help people to construct their own flywheel, described in seven detailed steps.
• 
  Gene Babon

  This book is an easy read. It is billed as a monograph to accompany Good to Great. So let's start with
  Good to Great, a five-star business classic by Jim Collins.
  
  One of the core concepts of Good to Great revolves around ...
  

  The Flywheel and the Doom Loop: The process of relentlessly pushing a giant heavy flywheel in one direction, turn upon turn, building momentum until a point of breakthrough, and beyond.

  Once you succeed in generating flywheel momentum in your particular circumstance you can access almost unstoppable compounded growth.
  
  So, perhaps the primary objective of your business is to create a customer-value compounding machine. One of the biggest, and most common, strategic mistakes lies in failing to aggressively and persistently make the most of victories.
  
  The author lists seven essential steps to capturing your flywheel. Think of your flywheel as your business architecture, a circular diagram that helps you to do more of the things that succeed and less of the things that disappoint.
  
  The seventh and final step is to test your flywheel against ...
  

  The Hedgehog Concept: If you cannot be the best in the world at your core business, then your core business absolutely cannot form the basis of a great company.

  The bottom line in transitioning your operation from Good to Great:

  Exit definitively or renew obsessively, but never—ever—neglect your flywheel.

  Access Gene Babon's reviews of books on Business Leadership and Business Strategy at
  Pinterest.
  
• 
  Gordon

  Finally a business book that understands that its message can and should be distilled to less than 40 pages! Valuable ideas that are communicated with brevity. Thank you.
  
  “In looking across the history of great companies in all our research studies, we find a frequent pattern. They usually begin life being successful in a specific business arena, making the most of their early big bets. But soon they make a conceptual shift from “running a business” to turning a flywheel. And over time, they extend that flywheel by firing bullets, then cannonballs. They crank the flywheel in their first arena of success, while simultaneously firing bullets to discover new things that might work, and as a hedge against uncertainty.”
• 
  Elly Stroo Cloeck

  Over de Nederlandse versie: Het vliegwieleffect:
  
  Steeds een klein duwtje geven, in dezelfde richting, en blijven duwen: zo start je een vliegwiel, dat daardoor steeds sneller gaat draaien. Deze metafoor gebruikt Jim Collins in zijn bestseller Good to Great, als één van de methoden om blijvend succesvol te zijn. Begin 2021 kwam in Nederland zijn monografie uit over het vliegwieleffect, met recente voorbeelden van bedrijven.
  
  Het vliegwieleffect is opvallend kort, zoals veel boeken uit de ‘Business Bibliotheek’ serie van Uitgeverij Business Contact. In nog geen 100 klein formaat pagina’s wordt dit concept uit Good to Great uit 2001 uitgewerkt. De kern is dat de overgang van een goed bedrijf naar een geweldig bedrijf nooit in één klap komt. Daar wordt geduldig, soms jarenlang aan gebouwd, stap voor stap. In zijn klassieker gebruikt Collins met name het voorbeeld van Circuit City, op dit moment best wel onbekend. Fijn dus dat in Het vliegwieleffect aansprekende bedrijven als Amazon, Vanguard en Intel aan bod komen.
  
  De 4 fase van het vliegwiel
  In de G2G versie is het vliegwiel een cirkel met 4 fasen:
  1. Een stapje vooruit doen volgens het Egelprincipe
  2. Steeds meer zichtbare resultaten
  3. Mensen raken nog gemotiveerder en energieker door dit succes
  4. Het vliegwiel krijgt vaart
  5. Terug bij 1. Weer een stapje vooruit
  
  Hoe ontwerp je een vliegwiel?
  In Het vliegwieleffect wordt de nadruk meer gelegd op het ontwerpen van het vliegwiel, met 9 stappen:
  1. Maak een lijst van de significatie, reproduceerbare successen
  2. Idem voor de teleurstellingen
  3. Vergelijk en analyseer, welke onderdelen springen eruit
  4. Schets je vliegwiel met die onderdelen (4 -6, niet meer)
  5. Vereenvoudig en zoek naar de essentie
  6. Test je vliegwiel met empirisch bewijs, kun je je successen met dit vliegwiel uitleggen?
  7. Vergelijk je vliegwiel met je drie cirkels van het Egelprincipe
  Het Egelprincipe laat je focussen op die activiteiten waarvoor je passie hebt, waarin je het allerbeste bent, en wat geld oplevert. In het boekje is een korte samenvatting van dit principe opgenomen.
  
  Amazon, Vanguard, Intel
  Voor Amazon ziet het vliegwiel er nu zo uit:
  1. Lagere prijzen en een breder aanbod
  2. Dit verhoogt de klantbezoeken
  3. Dit trekt commissie betalende externe verkopers aan om óók via Amazon te verkopen
  4. Dit schaalvoordeel leidt tot een grotere winkel, en betere distributie
  5. Op de vaste lasten wordt nu meer marge gehaald
  6. Terug naar 1: lagere prijzen
  Eerlijk gezegd vond ik dit voorbeeld, en ook dat van Vanguard, erg voor-de-hand-liggen: goedkope producten, veel klanten, schaalvoordeel, nog goedkopere producten. Bij Intel ligt de focus meer op innovatieve producten – hoge marge - veel investeringen in R&D.
  Misschien is juist het feit dat het zo simpel is, wel de kracht van dit boekje. Als het Bezos lukt met een simpel idee, een simpel vliegwiel, waarom jou dan niet?
  
  Onderhoud, uitbreiding en vastlopen
  Natuurlijk moet het vliegwiel onderhouden worden (innovatie). Hiervoor put Collins uit zijn boek Built to Last, en het principe 'Genie van het EN'. Ga ervan uit dat je je vliegwiel zowel kunt verstevigen als kunt vervangen, tegelijkertijd.
  Ook moet het vliegwiel uitgebreid worden, als het niet lukt de vaart erin te houden door alleen te onderhouden. Voor dit onderdeel wordt teruggegrepen op zijn boek Great by Choice: Eerst (geweer)kogels, dan kanonskogels. Probeer eerst iets met kleine experimenten, en als die succesvol zijn ga je er helemaal voor.
  
  Amazon heeft zijn vliegwiel uitgebreid met Amazon Web Services, wat een service is aan bedrijven die op exact dezelfde onderdelen is gestoeld als de onlinewinkel: lage prijzen, meer aanbod, schaalvoordeel, nog lagere prijzen. Als een twee-eiige tweeling.
  Het vastlopen van het vliegwiel koppelt Collins aan How the Mighty Fall: het loslaten van principes, onbeproefde strategieën, onlogische overnames. Niet meer dezelfde kant opduwen, in vliegwieltermen.
  
  Evaluatie
  Het boekje eindigt met een hele korte samenvatting van de principes uit Good to Great, waarin ook de principes uit zijn andere boeken zijn verweven. Een feest der herkenning als je die hebt gelezen! Maar waarschijnlijk te kort door de bocht als je ze niet kent.
  
  Waarin dit boekje natuurlijk ook afwijkt van de eerdere bestsellers, is de mate van onderbouwing. Collins deed per boek jarenlang onderzoek bij honderden bedrijven. Voor dit boekje lijkt dit niet het geval geweest te zijn, het is gebaseerd op enkele interviews of een autobiografie. Het voordeel hiervan is natuurlijk dat het erg actueel is.
  
  Heb je wel eens van het werk van Collins gehoord, maar ken je het niet, dan is dit een aardige introductie. Ik verwacht dat je direct één van de onderliggende boeken koopt voor meer achtergrond. Degenen die lang, lang geleden zijn klassiekers gelezen hebben, zullen veel meer aan dit boekje hebben, het is een prima opfrisser.
  
  Prettig is dat het je herinnert aan een oude waarheid: alle begin is moeilijk. Maar als het eenmaal loopt, gaat het steeds harder. Niet opgeven dus, maar duwen! En het verschil met trekken aan een dood paard kennen ...
  
  Elly Stroo Cloeck is project- en interim-manager op het gebied van Finance, Internal Audit en Risk Management. Daarnaast schrijft ze recensies en samenvattingen van managementboeken. Kijk eens op haar website!
  
• 
  Andrus

  Features one solid idea (that a great strategy is a “flywheel” of interconnected sub-strategies), and doesn’t beat it to death. One of the very few business publications I have read that I wish to have been longer.
• 
  Phil Cebuhar

  System based management turns momentum into progress, and progress into lasting impact. The FlyWheel system with its Disciplines and Principles help identify what is need to help any flywheel churn, and leave an astounding impact.
• 
  Matt McAlear

  Always a solid read. Key takeaways for me that I haven't thought about before: I normally looked at the flywheel as just a momentum builder within an organization that continues to speed up. However, now I think a more true analogy to Jim Collins fly wheel is the addition of how each components that you put on the flywheel all build into each other and have an exponential effect on the sum. Reviewing your flywheel periodically to make sure that each segment builds into the next is probably a wise thing to do annually.
• 
  Parker Friesen

  Good little monograph.
  
  Several of the principles are very helpful in figuring out what your flywheel looks like. I also wish he would have spent a bit of time exploring what an "anti-flywheel" or how flywheels can work out in counter-productive ways and how to assess them, but I suppose it's up to the reader to sort that for themselves.
  
  8.4/10
• 
  Liudas Belickas

  The concept of flywheels is awesome and powerful, but book could go further in dissecting the hands on work on creating or fixing them. Also quite annoying that instead of going deeper on some concepts it simple refferences other books of his ex built to last, good to great. Still would recommend the read especially this short
• 
  Amir Jabbari

  What is your company's flywheel? The concept gives you a systematic view of your firm's processes.
• 
  Teck Wu

  Great insight on how to create a continuously spinning momentum in your organization, whether for revenue or any other metric.
• 
  Amit Verma

  This is monograph that is made as a little essay to accompany author's book, "Good to great."
  
  It discusses flywheel concept of building a big enterprise based on few key steps which are interrelated and influential on each other.
  Big corporations make a good flywheel, stick to it, renovate it, turn it repeatedly till they get breakthrough and momentum.
  .
  He also describes why companies fail and how great companies stay strong and becone bigger with time.
  .
  There are examples of big companies like Apple, Intel, Vangaurd and many more.
  .
  
  Book is insightful, simple and enjoyable.
  It is concise but still overflowing with information which is really practical and well researched.
  Book also details basic concepts for making a lasting organisation and how to kerp it relevent during stress snd how to advance it.
  Very nice work by the masterful business teacher.
  .
  I recommend to every nonfiction lover. Read it over a cup of coffee and you will be thanking yourself for picking this one up .
  .
  
  Thanks to publisher and edelweiss plus for review ecopy.
• 
  Paweł Skorupiński

  Very nice most recent summary of Jim Collins' concepts on greatness of enterprises and their leaders with the zoom on the concept of the flywheel - I would say, giving just enough information about it to inspire to think about one's own organisational or personal set of reoccurring actions indispensable for continuous growth.
  
  The book is little in size and is meant to be read with another author's book, Good to Great. It will be a good add on for the ones knowing the school of Jim Collins. Will probably be too much out of context for the others.
  
  If you want to learn more about Jim Collins and his unique approach and personality, I warmly recommend a recent podcast of Tim Ferris hosting the man himself.
• 
  Mike Hales

  Simple, clear and easily applicable
  
  Jim Collins' work is so well thought out that it naturally hangs together and make sense in a number of contexts. You could easily apply the flywheel idea to just about anything. It's not the model but the understanding of what you're applying it to that is really important. Especially important is that it's not a goal or state but a continual process.
  Great reading.
• 
  Saurabh Kabra

  Good expansion on a business metaphor with thorough research. Must read.
• 
  Paul Bard

  By comparing the components of past successes and failures and tinkering them into a systematic cycle, a flywheel, the architecture of profitability becomes clear, able to be improved, and able to be accelerated.
  
  Contains about twenty example flywheels.
  
  Not just a business book but rather a book that explains a universal principle: how and why do some complex systems compound and others do not?
  
  Because of its universal value, more attention to other applications might have increased the impact, but what the book sacrifices in breadth it compensates with brevity.
  
  We must distinguish between cyclical flywheel processes and the natural and creative processes, though. Flywheels concern only measurable successes.
  
  Many intriguing intersections stem from this big idea of the flywheel: the Stockdale paradox, the Hedgehog test, and the X10 luck principle, and the author often refers readers to his other books for more information. Fair enough.
  
  It is instructive to situate this book with Kaufman's 10 tests for the market in Portable MBA, the two books on Life Design from the Stanford course, which situate the flywheel in a larger context, the book Thinking In Bets, and the wider business literature on luck. The authors attempts to contextualise the flywheel end up sending readers to his other books anyway.
  
  This feels like a deep universal principle. The book feels necessary. And it delivers a lot more than what it promises. .
  
  So I give it the highest recommendationm
• 
  Rishabh Srivastava

  Very short. Great overview of why flywheels (mutually reinforcing components of a company's strategy) are important, but does not contain useful advice for how to engineer flywheels for your company
  
  Main points were:
  1. Never underestimate the power of a great flywheel, especially when it builds compounding momentum over a very long time. Once you get your flywheel right, you want to renew and extend it for decades
  
  2. One of the biggest and most common strategic mistakes lies in failing to aggressively and persistently make the most of victories. One reason for this is that leaders become seduced by an endless search for the Next Big Thing. Don't abandon a great flywheel when it would be a superior strategy to sustain, renew, and extend
  
  3. For a truly great company, the Big Thing is never any specific line of business or product or idea or invention. It is your underlying flywheel architecture, properly conceived
  
  4. The nature of the flywheel is that every component depends on every other component. You simply cannot falter on any primary component and sustain momentum. When your business depends on a flywheel, flawless execution across all components is key
• 
  Jiliac

  DISCIPLINE. That's the one word review of this book.
  
  Don't try to cut butter with the back of a spoon. Use a knife. What's your knife?
  
  Your knife is the flywheel. Building your flywheel is like sharpening your knife.
  
  The flywheel is really compound interest applied to business. And that's why you need discipline. With compound interest, the returns are low at the beginning, but if you keep pushing through, you'll get huge results seemingly effortlessly.
  
  That's why you need to be monogamous. (I'm thinking of businesses but it also works in relationships). Don't stop compound interest just before they would have started benefiting you. Keep focusing on a single business idea.
  
  Bonus: The appendix is a bomb of concepts. The book is already so dense since it's only 50 pages. But the appendix is only 10 pages and it summaries all of Collins concepts.
  
  Probably this "monograph" is the best entry book to Collins work.
• 
  Gracelinvidya

  Turning the Flywheel: A Monograph to Accompany Good to Great by James C. Collins introduces the flywheel effect. The idea behind the success of any organization big or small resembles not just focusing on a single goal, but keeping the flywheel in momentum. Imagine a flywheel that has a set of interdependent goals, such that starting one goal would trigger the other, and then another and so on. The need is an initial push (that is achieving every goal successfully) and then after a point, the flywheel starts turning on its own, gaining momentum. This is known as the flywheel effect. The book describes the flywheel examples of Amazon, Vanguard, even a school, etc. in detail. The book also explains building a new flywheel and extending this flywheel with examples. It definitely is an interesting yet simple concept applicable to various scenarios. A really short book, however worth reading.
• 
  Joshua Bradley

  Good to Great is one of the best explorations of what it takes to create a truly successful business for longevity. In Turning the Flywheel, Collins focuses on one of his most tactical details from the book, distiling an incredible body of research into the best 45 minutes you could spend on your business's future. It might seem like an easy exercise to put together flywheel steps, but discounting the sophistication of the concept would be a mistake. The sequence of steps is vital to the flywheel's function, as is evaluating and ensuring you are executing at each stage so the momentum compounds.
  
  For extra credit, listen to Jim and Tim Ferriss talk about how he implements and thinks about these ideas in his own life.
  https://tim.blog/2019/02/18/jim-collins/
• 
  Stephan Benzkofer

  This book proved useful as a catalyst for a productive business discussion, which maybe means it merits a higher rating, but too many of the examples analyzing why successful companies were successful ended up just describing what they did well, not how they were able to accomplish that. For example, it explains that Amazon became a behemoth by creating a marketplace that offered cut-rate products. But the author doesn't try to explain how it accomplished that feat. (Maybe the author offers that explanation in the full book?). A bicycling products manufacturer succeeded by getting famous cyclists to endorse his products. But how? And wouldn't the quality of the product have been a bigger factor?
• 
  bibliothekathome

  Turningtheflywheel is a short 40-page-book or even could be named as a chapter focusing on mainly flyingwheel concept!! It is a loop consisting of components which are feeding each other to make a faster and continuous endless spin until it stops, let me given an example; I buy books and become happier😊 the happier I am the more books I buy😳
  
  Written by Jim Collins who is the author of "Good to Great" and has nice real life examples which enables reader to digest in an easy way, I highly recommend you to visit his web site where you can see other concepts which I found very useful and applicable to practical life!!
  
• 
  Blaine Strickland

  Listened to this short book via Audible. Read by the author in a slightly halting style. This is like a greatest hits album - if you have read Collins' other books, you will have already heard most of this material. I was about to give up on it until, he revisited the "get the right people on the bus" guidance for which he is so famous. I was reminded that "who" is more important than "what" - tying in with the Who Not How mantra made famous by Daniel Sullivan. I'd recommend this if you are not familiar with his work.
• 
  Nude Literária

  Wow. How could you fit so much content in 46 pages? Jim Collins is probably my favorite non-fiction author. His work has impacted me in numerous ways and I have been carrying what I've learned throughtout my life and passed it on to others too. This book provides some further insights into his concept of the flywheel and how to achieve it in seven steps. This book is the perfect definition of going straight to the point, while keeping it substantiated and with leaving room for annotations for later readings. A must-read for anyone who wants to become a manager/leader.