Good-to-great transformations

Hi all –

In his book Good to Great, Jim Collins’ flywheel represents the way processes help build momentum and structure towards consistent success. Amazon has done this well.

With the help of Jim Collins, Jeff Bezos was able to develop and identify their flywheel so they could see where to invest their energy and most importantly, what to say no to.

Let’s take a look at Amazon’s flywheel:

You can see every piece of the process comes back to customer experience and picks up momentum from there.

Because they offered a wide selection and convenience to the customer, Amazon’s customer experience was amplified comparatively to other competitors until it became the company’s sweet spot. Higher traffic led to delighted sellers and the momentum continues on.

No singular step or team provides the biggest push; they all work together to accumulate momentum.

In his book, Collins says,

“No matter how dramatic the end result, good-to-great transformations never happen in one fell swoop. In building a great company or social sector enterprise, there is no single defining action, no grand program, no one killer innovation, no solitary lucky break, no miracle moment. Rather, the process resembles relentlessly pushing a giant, heavy flywheel, turn upon turn, building momentum until a point of breakthrough, and beyond.”

If you’re curious, here’s the link to Good to Great along with an additional reading specifically on the flywheel effect.