Business Consultant, Lecturer, and Author

James “Jim” Collins III is unquestionably built to last. This management thinker is the author of business must-reads and his niche lies in analyzing what makes enduring companies tick. He describes his work as looking at these companies and asking “how they grow, how they attain superior performance, and how good companies can become great companies.” Twenty years of research and consultancy has allowed him to come with the conclusion that priority should be given to building lasting mechanisms on top of strategies.

A native of Colorado, the 50-year old management guru invested a lot in his education. He graduated with degrees in Business Administration and Mathematical Science from Stanford University. Jim Collins also has honorary doctoral degrees from the University of Colorado and the Peter F. Drucker Graduate School of Management at Claremont Graduate University. He then proceeded to begin his career as a member of the faculty at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. In recognition of his exemplary work, he was accorded the Distinguished Teaching Award in 1992.

To create a headquarters for his research, consulting and teaching sessions, he founded a management laboratory in Boulder, Colorado in 1995. Here his team of brilliant, driven students work with him on research projects, the results of which have contributed to Jim Collins’ bestsellers. He is also a regular contributor to prominent business publications such as the Harvard Business Review, The Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, Business Week, and Fortune Magazine.

The first book he wrote, Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies, sealed his name as one of the greatest management thinkers of our time. This book, which has been a consistent entry in Business Week’s list Bestsellers for six years, is already considered a management classic. The most recent follow-up book, Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…and Others Don’t, has sold three million hardcover copies and has been translated into 35 languages. It serves as a guide to those who want to take their companies to the next level. Due to his success as one of the foremost thought leaders in corporate America, he was invited as a resource speaker for the highly exclusive Fortune 500 Forum held last December 1-3, 2008.