Examples of Good to Great: Summary Examples for Everyone

The easiest way to remember Collins’ ideas is to start with real stories. When people ask for examples of good to great: summary examples for everyone, they’re usually looking for short, memorable snapshots they can repeat without sounding like a textbook.

Think of these as “story shortcuts” you can use:

• A leader who quietly gives credit to the team when things go right, but takes blame personally when things go wrong.
• A company that stops chasing every trend and instead focuses on the narrow thing it can do better than anyone in the world.
• A team that keeps pushing through boring, unglamorous work until results suddenly accelerate.

Those aren’t random anecdotes. They’re direct reflections of Collins’ key ideas: Level 5 Leadership, the Hedgehog Concept, and the Flywheel. Let’s look at examples of each in action.

From good to great leadership: real examples of Level 5 behavior

Collins’ most surprising finding was the Level 5 Leader: someone who blends deep personal humility with fierce professional will. The best examples are often leaders you don’t see on magazine covers.

Example of quiet, persistent leadership

One classic example of this from the book is Darwin Smith at Kimberly-Clark. When he became CEO in 1971, the company was a solid but unremarkable paper producer. Smith made a radical move: he sold the traditional paper mills and bet the future on consumer paper products like Kleenex and Huggies.

What makes this an example of good to great behavior isn’t just the decision. It’s how he did it:

• No flashy speeches or self-promotion
• Calm, data-backed conviction even when Wall Street mocked the move
• Consistent credit to his team when the strategy worked

Over time, Kimberly-Clark outperformed its rivals, including Procter & Gamble, in its core categories. This is one of the best examples of a leader who looked ordinary from the outside but produced extraordinary, lasting results.

Modern 2024–2025 leadership examples

You can see echoes of Level 5 leadership in more recent stories:

• Satya Nadella at Microsoft shifted a slowing tech giant toward cloud computing and AI, while openly talking about empathy, learning, and growth mindset. Microsoft’s market value and relevance surged in the 2014–2024 period.
• Jensen Huang at NVIDIA spent years building graphics chips for a niche market, then methodically expanded into AI hardware and platforms. The company’s long-term discipline turned it into one of the most valuable firms on the planet by 2024.

These leaders aren’t perfect, but they fit Collins’ pattern: long-term focus, quiet intensity, and an obsession with results over ego. When you need examples of good to great: summary examples for everyone, these names are easy to drop into any discussion about leadership.

The Hedgehog Concept: examples of focus that beat complexity

The Hedgehog Concept is Collins’ way of describing focused strategy. Great companies figure out the intersection of three things:

• What they can be the best in the world at
• What drives their economic engine
• What they are deeply passionate about

They then stop doing everything that doesn’t fit that intersection.

Example of a company that stopped being “good at many things”

Walgreens is one of Collins’ standout examples of the Hedgehog Concept. For years, Walgreens was a decent drugstore chain. The shift from good to great happened when leadership focused on one clear idea: being the most convenient drugstore for customers.

That focus led to specific moves:

• Putting stores on the “best corners” instead of chasing the lowest rent
• Designing layouts and services around quick, repeat visits
• Dropping businesses that didn’t support convenience

Over a 15-year period, Walgreens’ stock performance dramatically outpaced the general market. The story turned into one of the best examples of how a simple, consistent concept can beat complex, scattered strategies.

Modern examples of hedgehog-like focus

In the 2020s, you see similar patterns:

• Shopify narrowed in on being the backbone for independent online stores, instead of trying to be Amazon. That tight focus on enabling merchants became its economic engine.
• Zoom (especially during 2020–2022) focused intensely on simple, reliable video communication, even as rivals bolted video onto bloated platforms.

When you need examples of good to great: summary examples for everyone, these companies show how saying “no” to side projects can be more powerful than chasing every possible opportunity.

For a deeper look at strategic focus and performance, you can compare this idea with long-term corporate performance data from sources like the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis: https://www.bea.gov

The Flywheel vs. the Doom Loop: examples include both winners and failures

Collins uses the Flywheel as a metaphor: steady, consistent pushes in the same direction eventually build unstoppable momentum. The opposite is the Doom Loop: constant reorganizing, new slogans, and dramatic changes that never stick.

Example of a flywheel in action

Wells Fargo (in the original research window) was presented as a flywheel success. The bank focused on:

• A disciplined cost structure
• A strong performance culture
• Careful expansion into the right markets

Year after year, these small pushes added up to strong results that beat many competitors. That was the good-to-great story.

However, the post-2016 Wells Fargo scandal — where employees opened unauthorized accounts to hit aggressive sales targets — is an important update. It shows how a company that once fit the good-to-great pattern can slide into toxic incentives and ethical failure.

This is a modern reminder: the flywheel only works when the underlying culture and incentives are healthy. For context on ethics and organizational behavior, business students often reference materials from Harvard Business School: https://www.hbs.edu

Doom Loop examples in the 2020s

You also see Collins’ Doom Loop pattern in more recent stories:

• Some direct-to-consumer brands that exploded on social media during the pandemic, then constantly pivoted product lines, marketing angles, and channels without a clear core strategy. Many burned investor cash and faded.
• Traditional retailers that keep rebranding, changing logos, and launching new store formats every few years instead of fixing their basic customer experience and operations.

When someone asks for examples of good to great: summary examples for everyone, contrasting a flywheel company with a Doom Loop company is an effective way to make the concept stick.

First Who, Then What: people decisions as good to great examples

Another core finding from Collins: great companies get the right people on the bus before deciding exactly where to drive it. In other words, they prioritize hiring and culture over grand strategy documents.

Example of people-first thinking

Nucor, the steel company, is one of Collins’ favorite examples of this idea. Instead of trying to win with fancy headquarters or complex plans, Nucor focused on:

• Hiring self-motivated workers in small, decentralized plants
• Creating performance-based pay where frontline employees could earn more when the company did well
• Keeping bureaucracy low so decisions could move quickly

This people-first approach helped Nucor thrive in an industry many considered dying in the United States.

You see echoes of this mindset in modern tech and startup culture, where founders talk about “hiring for attitude and learning speed” more than for perfect resumes. Research on organizational performance often reinforces this. For example, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management provides guidance on how talent and engagement affect performance across agencies: https://www.opm.gov

When you’re building your own examples of good to great: summary examples for everyone, people stories are often the easiest for audiences to remember.

Technology as an accelerator, not a savior: modern examples

One of Collins’ most misunderstood points is about technology. Great companies use tech as a force multiplier for a clear strategy; they don’t expect it to rescue a bad one.

Classic and current examples include:

• In Collins’ original research, Fannie Mae used technology to support its disciplined financial models and risk management (though, again, its later history shows how losing discipline can undo earlier greatness).
• In the 2010s and 2020s, Amazon used technology to speed up logistics, personalize recommendations, and drive down costs — all in service of its core focus on customer obsession and scale.
• NVIDIA built advanced chips and software ecosystems that amplified its hedgehog focus on high-performance computing and AI.

The pattern: in every example of good to great technology use, tech is a tool, not the strategy itself. If you’re summarizing the book for a 2024 audience, this is a powerful point to connect with current AI and cloud trends.

For readers interested in how technology and work performance intersect, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) offers research on work design and productivity: https://www.cdc.gov/niosh

2024–2025 relevance: why Good to Great still matters

Some of Collins’ original company picks haven’t aged well. That doesn’t invalidate the patterns; it shows that greatness is a moving target, not a lifetime guarantee.

Here’s how the core ideas still show up today:

• Level 5 Leadership is visible in leaders who admit mistakes, share credit, and stay focused on long-term health instead of quarterly hype.
• The Hedgehog Concept is obvious in niche software companies, specialized manufacturers, and even solo creators who pick a clear lane and double down.
• The Flywheel pattern explains why overnight successes are often 10-year stories of quiet, consistent effort.
• First Who, Then What shows up in companies that invest heavily in hiring, training, and culture before scaling.

When someone asks for examples of good to great: summary examples for everyone, you can now point to:

• Historical examples from Collins’ research (Kimberly-Clark, Walgreens, Nucor)
• Updated examples from the 2010s and 2020s (Microsoft, NVIDIA, Shopify, Zoom)
• Cautionary tales where companies slipped from great back to troubled (Wells Fargo, Fannie Mae, some high-flying startups)

That mix of success stories and warnings makes your summary feel current, not frozen in early-2000s business culture.

Quick Good to Great summary examples you can reuse

To make this truly for everyone, here are short, ready-to-use summary snippets you can adapt for class, work, or content creation. These are the kind of examples of good to great: summary examples for everyone that you can drop into a slide or conversation without needing the book in front of you.

• Leadership example: “Good to Great argues that the best leaders are humble but relentlessly driven. Think of CEOs like Satya Nadella, who quietly rebuilt Microsoft by focusing on cloud and culture instead of chasing headlines.”
• Strategy example: “Great companies pick a narrow focus and stick to it. Walgreens did this by making convenience its north star, which guided everything from store locations to services.”
• Momentum example: “Success is more like pushing a heavy flywheel than flipping a switch. Small, consistent improvements eventually create a breakthrough — not the other way around.”
• People example: “Instead of hiring people to fit a plan, Good to Great companies hire the best people they can find, then shape the plan around them.”
• Technology example: “Technology doesn’t turn a bad company into a great one. It only accelerates a strategy that already works.”

Use these as templates when you need quick, clear examples of the book’s ideas.

FAQ: Short answers and examples

Q: What are the best examples of Good to Great companies today?
A: The original book highlighted companies like Kimberly-Clark, Walgreens, and Nucor. For a modern spin, people often point to Microsoft’s turnaround under Satya Nadella or NVIDIA’s long-term focus on high-performance computing and AI. These aren’t in the original research set, but they fit many of the same patterns.

Q: Can you give a simple example of the Hedgehog Concept?
A: Imagine a small business that realizes it’s not the cheapest or the largest, but it’s amazing at fast, friendly local service. It stops trying to compete on price and instead focuses everything on speed and personal touch. That move from “doing everything” to “doing one thing extremely well” is a clean example of the Hedgehog Concept.

Q: Are there examples of Good to Great companies that later failed?
A: Yes. Wells Fargo and Fannie Mae both appeared as success stories in the original research window but later ran into major ethical and performance problems. They’re now often used as examples of how losing discipline, culture, or ethics can pull a company back from great to troubled.

Q: How can an individual (not a company) apply Good to Great ideas?
A: On a personal level, you can apply the same patterns: act with humility and determination, find the intersection of what you’re good at, what you love, and what people will pay for, and build a personal “flywheel” by repeating the right habits until results compound.

Q: Where can I find more research behind these examples?
A: For broader context on leadership and organizational performance, business students and professionals often consult resources from universities and government agencies, such as Harvard Business School (https://www.hbs.edu), the Bureau of Economic Analysis (https://www.bea.gov), and the Office of Personnel Management (https://www.opm.gov).

If you remember nothing else, remember this: the best examples of good to great: summary examples for everyone are not about flashy slogans or overnight success. They’re about quiet leaders, focused strategies, patient momentum, and people who care more about the work than the spotlight.