This book spoke to my philosophy on leadership from the word “go.” I have a personal belief that people should not sell themselves short and that they should “reach high” with their ambitions for themselves and the organizations with which they are associated. Jim’s title captured my imagination and after reading his book, Built To Last, I was anxious to see where he would take me with Good To Great. Many things spoke to me in his work. First, I was impressed by the analytical rigor he brought to the conversation. His thinking reflected a fact-based assessment of high performance. His Good to Great framework of “Build Up to Breakthrough” and three broad stages of “Disciplined People, Disciplined Thought, and Disciplined Action” provided a terrific roadmap for me to think about the transformation of Campbell.

Also, his Level 5 Leadership discussion in Chapter 2 resonated deeply with me. In addition, his clear recognition that to go from good to great you had to first focus on the people before you could focus on the challenge at hand was very consistent with my experience. Finally, his concept of bringing great discipline to the entire process was very consistent with my philosophy of the need to be “tough-minded with standards of performance.”

Jim has a special talent for this work. He spoke at one of my early global leadership meetings at Campbell shortly after he published Good To Great and he spoke at my last meeting in June, 2011. I can’t think of a better way to bookend my journey at Campbell.

– D. R. Conant