It is often said (and I agree with the statement) that a company's success is based on the people they have working for them.  A company is made of people --- it is they who craft the strategy and it is they execute on the strategy to varying degrees.? Jim Collins (author and researcher) and his team spent years researching what it takes to turn a good company into a great one.  His research found that "who" joins a company (or is already employed by the company) is more important than the "what."  In his book, Good to Great, he uses the metaphor of a bus driver getting the right people on the bus.  An excerpt from his web site: 

http://www.jimcollins.com/article_topics/articles/good-to-great.html

Here's the basic premise, as derived from Jim Collins' work:

You are a bus driver. The bus, your company, is at a standstill, and it's your job to get it going. You have to decide where you're going, how you're going to get there, and who's going with you. Most people assume that great bus drivers (read: business leaders) immediately start the journey by announcing to the people on the bus where they're going--by setting a new direction or by articulating a fresh corporate vision.

When it comes to getting started, good-to-great leaders understand three simple truths.

• If you begin with "who," you can more easily adapt to a fast-changing world. If people get on your bus because of where they think it's going, you'll be in trouble when you get 10 miles down the road and discover that you need to change direction because the world has changed. But if people board the bus principally because of all the other great people on the bus, you'll be much faster and smarter in responding to changing conditions.
• If you have the right people on your bus, you don't need to worry about motivating them. The right people are self-motivated: Nothing beats being part of a team that is expected to produce great results.
• If you have the wrong people on the bus, nothing else matters. You may be headed in the right direction, but you still won't achieve greatness. Great vision with mediocre people still produces mediocre results.

Class: What resonates with you here? Thoughts? Comments?