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The topic of the next Business Observer Open Book event revolves around one of the most popular business books of all time — Good to Great.
Rather than on Jim Collins’ landmark book about how good companies become great, the talk is on a companion guidebook. Entitled “Turning the Flywheel: A Monograph to Accompany Good to Great,” the 44-page booklet by Collins expands on the flywheel concept he introduced in his 2001 book.
The Open Book host is Erika Donalds, president and CEO of the Naples-based Optima Foundation and a statewide leader in opening charter schools. A 2021 Business Observer Change Maker, Donalds says Optima’s focus is on educating parents and raising the bar about what’s possible in alternatives to public education. “Public schools have been a monopoly for years, for decades, and parents really didn’t know they had other options,” Donalds told the Business Observer in July.
Open Book is a virtual event where business and nonprofit leaders in the region, from Tampa to Naples, lead a dynamic conversation about a book that’s had a major impact on their life and career. A former Collier County School Board member and past CFO and COO of a New York investment firm, Donalds chose Collins’ Good to Great companion.
“In creating a good-to-great transformation, there’s no single defining action, no grand program, no single killer innovation, no solitary lucky break, no miracle moment,” Collins writes. “Rather, it feels like turning a giant, heavy flywheel. Pushing with great effort, you get the flywheel to inch forward. You keep pushing, and with persistent effort, you get the flywheel to complete one entire turn. You don’t stop. You keep pushing. The flywheel moves a bit faster. Two turns . . . then four . . . then eight . . . the flywheel builds momentum . . . sixteen . . . thirty- two . . . moving faster . . . a thousand . . . ten thousand . . . a hundred thousand. Then at some point—breakthrough! The flywheel flies forward with almost unstoppable momentum.”
The Open Book event is scheduled for Thursday, Nov. 4, 4 to 5 p.m. Click here to register.
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