Jim Collins
Author and leadership researcher known for Good to Great and Built to Last. He advises leaders across sectors and conducts research through a management laboratory he founded in Boulder, Colorado.
Investment, Fans and Media Turn Women’s Basketball Into a Growth Flywheel
Golden State Valkyries president Jess Smith says investment, alongside growing fan interest and media attention, is driving the team’s rapid growth. In a Masters of Scale interview with Jeff Berman, she argues that a women’s team should build for an audience beyond fans of men’s sports and establish a distinct identity before going to market. The Valkyries’ brand, she says, must give fans a reason to connect with the team beyond its roster.
A Calling Requires Capacity, Inner Fire, and Economic Fuel
Jim Collins argues that potential is not a discovery that must happen early or follow a fixed career plan. Drawing on lives including Grace Hopper’s, he says people should look for the durable capacities they are “encoded” for, then find work that combines those capacities with inner motivation and enough economic support to sustain it. When careers are disrupted or the institutional setting no longer fits, Collins contends, the task may be to change the work’s “home,” not abandon the deeper pursuit.