While there is some truth to the statement in terms of the impact that good people have on an organization, I'd argue that it is more generally false than true.
Context is important. Jim Collins, author of Good to Great is the author of the above quote. Here's the quote in full:
"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.In fact, leaders of companies that go from good to great start not with “where” but with “who.” They start by getting the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people in the right seats." (Collins, 2001)
His target audience was the business community, and the business leader that, as the above quote describes, has full responsibility and authority for the "bus". Is this situation analogous to education? The idea that business principles apply equally to education is not a given. Take, for example the path once advocated by Bill Gates, former CEO of Microsoft, and highly influential education reformer. In 2001, Gates advocated in an OpEd in the Wall Street Journal that schools could learn from businesses. (Morris, 2013) One change he proposed was the way teachers are evaluated. At Microsoft, employees were "stacked", that is rated in relation to each other and ranked by performance. Top performers were recognized, the bottom let go. The model was introduced into teacher evaluations, and student tests scores were used to determine performance. Yet a funny thing happened: Microsoft abandoned the practice after they found it to be highly demoralizing to employees and ineffective. The experiences of teachers are very much the same. In this case, not only did a business principle work in education, but it seems to have failed in business as well.
Perhaps education is just too different from business. As the editors of Rethinking Schools note, " Schools are not businesses. When they flourish, they are living communities defined by powerful and caring collaboration. Students are not things to be produced?they are human beings who are learning and growing in ways that are too complex, erratic, or nuanced for any standardized scores to truly measure. And teacher dedication is better nourished by a supportive and successful work culture than by narrow appeals to individual self-interest." (Rethinking Schools, 2009)
Preaching to the choir.
Collins, J. (2001, October 1). Good to Great. Fast Company, 90-104.
Morris, D. (2013, December 2). Schools may soon be run more 'like a business' than businesses are. Star Tribune.
Editorial: Goodbye to Schools as Businesses. (n.d.). Retrieved November 4, 2015, from http://www.rethinkingschools.org/archive/23_03/edit233.shtml
Context is important. Jim Collins, author of Good to Great is the author of the above quote. Here's the quote in full:
"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.In fact, leaders of companies that go from good to great start not with “where” but with “who.” They start by getting the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people in the right seats." (Collins, 2001)
His target audience was the business community, and the business leader that, as the above quote describes, has full responsibility and authority for the "bus". Is this situation analogous to education? The idea that business principles apply equally to education is not a given. Take, for example the path once advocated by Bill Gates, former CEO of Microsoft, and highly influential education reformer. In 2001, Gates advocated in an OpEd in the Wall Street Journal that schools could learn from businesses. (Morris, 2013) One change he proposed was the way teachers are evaluated. At Microsoft, employees were "stacked", that is rated in relation to each other and ranked by performance. Top performers were recognized, the bottom let go. The model was introduced into teacher evaluations, and student tests scores were used to determine performance. Yet a funny thing happened: Microsoft abandoned the practice after they found it to be highly demoralizing to employees and ineffective. The experiences of teachers are very much the same. In this case, not only did a business principle work in education, but it seems to have failed in business as well.
Perhaps education is just too different from business. As the editors of Rethinking Schools note, " Schools are not businesses. When they flourish, they are living communities defined by powerful and caring collaboration. Students are not things to be produced?they are human beings who are learning and growing in ways that are too complex, erratic, or nuanced for any standardized scores to truly measure. And teacher dedication is better nourished by a supportive and successful work culture than by narrow appeals to individual self-interest." (Rethinking Schools, 2009)
Preaching to the choir.
Collins, J. (2001, October 1). Good to Great. Fast Company, 90-104.
Morris, D. (2013, December 2). Schools may soon be run more 'like a business' than businesses are. Star Tribune.
Editorial: Goodbye to Schools as Businesses. (n.d.). Retrieved November 4, 2015, from http://www.rethinkingschools.org/archive/23_03/edit233.shtml