Alex Honnold
Legendary Free Solo Climber | Taipei 101 Free Soloist | Peak Performance and Risk Management Expert
Jim Collins
Author, Good to Great and What to Make of a Life | Creator of Level 5 Leadership, the Flywheel & BHAGs | 11M+ Books Sold | Forbes 100
Jim Collins is the most influential management researcher of the past three decades. Author of Good to Great, Built to Last, Great by Choice and his newest book What to Make of a Life, he has sold more than 11 million copies worldwide and given leaders a vocabulary for greatness that no other thinker has matched. His concepts — Level 5 Leadership, the Flywheel, the Hedgehog Concept and BHAGs — are the permanent furniture of organizational thinking.
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Jim Collins biography
Jim Collins is a student and teacher of exceptional human endeavor and a Socratic advisor to leaders across all sectors of society. Over more than three decades of rigorous research, he has built an unmatched body of work on what makes great companies and great people tick, giving leaders a vocabulary of enduring concepts that have shaped how organizations think about strategy, culture, and leadership more than any other researcher of his era. His books have sold more than 11 million copies worldwide. In 2017, Forbes named him one of the 100 Greatest Living Business Minds.
As a leadership speaker, Collins began his research career on the faculty of Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he received the Distinguished Teaching Award in 1992. In 1995 he founded a management laboratory in Boulder, Colorado, where he has since conducted research with a team of collaborators in the tradition of the natural sciences: designing studies, collecting data, testing hypotheses, and publishing findings that are built to last rather than built for the news cycle. His clients have included CEOs and senior executives across the business and social sectors, and he has worked with institutions as varied as the US Marine Corps, McKinsey, the Cleveland Clinic, the Girl Scouts, and multiple heads of state.
The concepts that have emerged from Collins’s work are now part of the permanent furniture of organizational thinking. Level 5 Leadership — the paradoxical combination of fierce professional will and personal humility that distinguishes the leaders of the most sustainably great companies. The Flywheel — the model for how consistent, cumulative effort in one direction produces breakthrough momentum. The Hedgehog Concept — the intersection of what you can be best in the world at, what drives your economic engine, and what you are deeply passionate about. First Who, Then What — the principle that getting the right people on the bus matters more than where the bus is going. BHAGs — Big Hairy Audacious Goals that define twenty-to-thirty-year aspirations. The 20 Mile March. Fire Bullets, Then Cannonballs. Return on Luck. Each concept emerged not from theory but from research designed to answer a specific empirical question.
A New Chapter: What to Make of a Life
Collins’s most recent and most personal work extends his research in a new direction. What to Make of a Life: Cliffs, Fog, Fire and the Self-Knowledge Imperative (Harper Edge, April 2026) is the result of a decade-long research project and two years of writing, in which Collins studied 34 subjects drawn from across human endeavor — musicians, athletes, politicians, scientists, writers — analyzed in matched pairs to reveal how different choices at life’s pivotal moments produce radically different outcomes. It is the first book in which Collins draws substantially on his own biography, writing with a candor and emotional depth that surprised even longtime readers. Chief Executive magazine called it the most ambitious research agenda of his career.
As a speaker, Jim Collins is one of the most sought-after and least frequently available voices on the global leadership circuit. He accepts a small number of engagements each year, and those who have heard him consistently describe the experience as one of the most intellectually rigorous and practically impactful of their careers. Contact Aurum Speakers Bureau to inquire about Jim Collins’s availability for your next event.
Jim Collins Speaking Videos
Jim Collins - Being Great Is a Matter of Choice and Discipline
Jim Collins - The X Factor of Truly Great Leadership
Jim Collins Keynote Topics
The foundational Collins keynote, drawn from the five-year research project behind his most widely read book, presents the seven characteristics that consistently distinguished the companies that made a sustained leap from good to great performance from those that remained good but never became great. Collins covers Level 5 Leadership, the First Who Then What principle, the Brutal Facts confronted alongside unwavering faith, the Hedgehog Concept, a culture of discipline, the technology accelerator, and the Flywheel and Doom Loop. He presents the findings not as a motivational framework but as research results grounded in data, with the same intellectual rigor he brings to any scholarly inquiry. One of the most requested and most evidence-grounded strategy keynotes available.
The Flywheel concept has become one of the most widely applied frameworks in organizational strategy, used by companies from Amazon to the Cleveland Clinic to think about how to build consistent, cumulative progress that compounds over time. Collins presents the Flywheel in depth: how to identify the specific sequence of steps that constitute your organization's flywheel, how to accelerate it through consistent execution, how to avoid the Doom Loop of reactive lurching that afflicts organizations that chase trends rather than building momentum, and what distinguishes organizations that sustain great performance for decades from those that achieve a single breakthrough and then stall. A keynote built for leadership teams that are serious about building something that lasts.
Collins's research into what distinguished companies that thrived during periods of radical uncertainty from those that did not produced a set of findings that are more relevant in the current environment than they were when first published. In this keynote, he presents the behaviors of the "10Xers" — the leaders whose companies outperformed their industries by ten times or more during volatile periods — including the 20 Mile March (the discipline of consistent performance regardless of conditions), firing bullets then cannonballs (empirical validation before major bets), and productive paranoia (preparing for the worst even during good times). A keynote for leaders who are tired of being told to "embrace uncertainty" and want to know specifically what the research says to do about it.
Collins's newest and most personal work, published in April 2026 after a decade of research, examines the pivotal moments that define a life and what separates those who navigate them well from those who don't. Drawing on 34 subjects studied in matched pairs — rock musicians, suffragists, scientists, public figures, athletes — he presents a framework for understanding how the choices made at life's cliffs, during its fogs, and in maintaining its inner fire determine the arc of a life's meaning and fulfillment. For the first time, Collins draws on his own story, writing with an honesty and emotional depth that distinguishes this keynote from everything else he has offered. Particularly powerful for senior leaders at inflection points in their own careers and lives.
Speaker topics
FAQs on Booking Jim Collins
Why Jim Collins?
Booking Jim Collins means giving your audience access to the most rigorously researched body of work on organizational greatness that exists, delivered by the person who built it over thirty years. His concepts are not consulting frameworks or thought leadership content. They are findings from research designed with the discipline of natural science, and they have held up across industries, sectors, economic cycles, and decades in a way that almost nothing else in management thinking has. He accepts very few speaking engagements each year, which means audiences that hear him live are genuinely rare. Contact Aurum Speakers Bureau to inquire about availability and fees.
What are Jim Collins' most famous books?
Jim Collins has authored some of the most influential business books ever published. Good to Great, his most widely known work, explores why some companies make the leap to sustained excellence while others do not. Built to Last, co-authored with Jerry Porras, examines what makes visionary companies endure across generations. Great by Choice, co-authored with Morten Hansen, investigates how certain organizations thrive in uncertainty. His other works include How the Mighty Fall, Turning the Flywheel, and Beyond Entrepreneurship 2.0. His newest book, What to Make of a Life: Cliffs, Fog, Fire and the Self-Knowledge Imperative, extends his research methodology to the study of individual lives and the pursuit of meaning.
What is Jim Collins' new book about?
What to Make of a Life: Cliffs, Fog, Fire and the Self-Knowledge Imperative is the product of a decade-long research project in which Collins extended his comparative methodology from organizations to individual lives. The book examines pivotal moments — cliffs — where life shifts from clarity to confusion, studying pairs of people who faced similar crossroads but made dramatically different choices. For the first time, Collins also shares his own personal story, revealing how this research transformed his thinking and emotions in fundamental ways. The book argues for the imperative of self-knowledge as the foundation for a richly fulfilled life.
What can audiences expect from a Jim Collins keynote?
A Jim Collins keynote is a research-driven, intellectually rigorous experience that challenges senior leaders to think differently about organizational and personal excellence. Collins draws on decades of empirical study to present frameworks and principles that audiences can apply immediately. His presentations are known for their depth, clarity, and practical relevance, whether he is addressing corporate leadership, organizational strategy, or the personal dimensions of building a meaningful life. Contact Aurum Speakers Bureau to discuss how Jim Collins can deliver a transformative keynote tailored to your event's objectives.
What is Good to Great?
"Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don't" (HarperCollins, 2001) is the result of a five-year research project in which Collins and his team studied 28 companies to identify what distinguished eleven that made a sustained leap from good to great performance from a matched set of comparison companies that did not. The study found seven characteristics that consistently appeared in the great companies and were absent in the comparison set, including Level 5 Leadership, the First Who Then What principle, the Hedgehog Concept, a culture of discipline, and the Flywheel. The book has sold more than four million copies and has been described as one of the most influential business books ever written. Its findings have been applied in companies, nonprofits, government agencies, and military organizations across the world.
What is Level 5 Leadership?
Level 5 Leadership is a concept Collins developed from the Good to Great research to describe the paradoxical leadership style that consistently characterized the CEOs of the great companies in his study. Level 5 leaders combine an intense professional will — an absolute ferocity of purpose and drive toward results — with a striking personal humility: a tendency to attribute success to others and take personal responsibility for failure, a lack of ego about personal recognition, and an almost selfless orientation toward the long-term success of the organization over any individual agenda. The concept has become one of the most widely cited in leadership development, and Collins has noted that it cannot simply be adopted as a technique. It appears to be a deeply character-level trait that develops over time.
What topics does Jim Collins cover as a keynote speaker?
Jim Collins speaks on the research findings from Good to Great and Built to Last, the Flywheel concept and building organizational momentum, Great by Choice and leading in conditions of uncertainty, the principles of enduring organizational greatness across business and social sectors, and his newest research in "What to Make of a Life" on the pivotal choices that define a life's meaning and fulfillment. He speaks to senior executive audiences, boards, and leadership teams across business, nonprofit, healthcare, education, and government. Because he accepts very few engagements per year, early inquiry is strongly recommended. Aurum Speakers Bureau can provide full details on Jim Collins's speaking fees and current availability.
How to book Jim Collins as a keynote speaker?
Aurum Speakers Bureau can help you book Jim Collins as a speaker for your next event, conference, or board meeting. Simply fill out our contact form to inquire about Jim Collins's availability for a speaking engagement. One of our booking agents will respond to your request immediately and contact the speaker to let them know you want to hire them. We will assist you with obtaining speaking fees, booking information, and confirming availability for Jim Collins or any other top keynote speaker or celebrity of your choice.
How much is Jim Collins speaking fee?
Jim Collins speaking fees are determined by several factors, including the event's date, whether it's a virtual or in-person event, the duration, format, preparation required for their speech, and more. The same applies to the cost to hire any other top expert speakers and celebrities. The Speaker Fee Range listed on our website is simply a guideline and is subject to change without notice. If you would like to hire Jim Collins to deliver a keynote speech for your event, please fill out the contact form or email us at info@aurumbureau.com with as much detail as possible. One of our experienced agents will get in touch with you and let you know exactly how much it will cost to book Jim Collins.
How can I contact Jim Collins?
We only work with Jim Collins on paid speaking engagements. Aurum Speakers Bureau can assist you in booking Jim Collins and will handle all negotiations, contracts, and logistics associated with having Jim Collins speak at your event. We will be your sole point of contact throughout the process. Get in touch with Aurum Speakers Bureau today, and we will reach out to any motivational speaker or celebrity you want to enquire about speaking at your event. If you wish to contact Jim Collins for any other reason, we will be unable to assist you as we are not authorized to provide personal contact information.
Can I book Jim Collins for a virtual keynote?
Yes, Jim Collins is available for virtual keynotes and webinars. To book Jim Collins for a virtual event, please complete the contact form or send us an email to inquire about the special fees for virtual engagements.
