I’ve discovered that bestselling author Jim Collins is both a great writer and a great speaker because his keynote address at #PBLS11 has been absolutely riveting. And his lessons on greatness can certainly apply to marketing, so I’ve summarized it for us here:

He started by stating that greatness is a matter of conscious choice and of discipline, not a matter of circumstance.  And the 50 years leading up to the year 2000 were an aberration because the USA was a dominant political and economic force in the world and that amount of stability is not normal.  So make sure you have your seatbelt fastened – the teacup ride is apparently over and the rollercoaster will now be the norm.

The main point of his address related to greatness and where it comes from.  After nine years of research, it turns out that greatness is more about choices than circumstances.  It’s also about character and consistency.

Great leadership begins with the right people, and then building a culture that can deal with the shocks of the environment.  And the most important managerial skill is picking the right people and putting them in the right seats.  So what does it take to lead in these times of turmoil? Greatness generally comes not from charisma, but character, choices and consistency over the long term.  So for great leadership, the most important characteristics to have are the humility and will associated with “Level 5” Leadership ambition, in addition to a 3-way combination of:

• Fanatical discipline,
• Empirical creativity,
• Productive paranoia.

One key linkage I made is with the point about emprirical creativity.  It's the handmaiden of analytics.  And it seems that great leaders' fondness for analytics means that they make confident decisions and they also ask great questions.  When I think about great leaders, it's the thoughtful curiosity and engagement in the form of the questions they ask that stand out for me.  Think about strong leaders in your organization - what makes them great?

Like all great communicators, Jim offered plenty of sound bites.  Here are three of my favorites:

• There's no law that says failure follows success, but it does when there is outrageous arrogance.
• The signature of mediocrity is not an unwillingness to change, it’s chronic inconsistency.
• Double your question to statement ratio in the next year – it will help cultivate empirical curiousity.

The lessons for marketers, of course, is that we all have the capability to achieve greatness in our own area of purview and beyond.  It's a choice we can all make.  What's your take on it?