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Jim Stockdale
Darwin E. Smith was the CEO of paper company Kimberly-Clark during its good-to-great transformation. Collins uses Smith as an example of a quintessential Level 5 Leader; he is humble and modest while also making bold leadership moves, most notably in selling all of his company’s paper mills. He also received little attention from the business media, another common characteristic of Level 5 Leaders.
Darwin E. Smith Quotes in Good to Great
The Good to Great quotes below are all either spoken by Darwin E. Smith or refer to Darwin E. Smith. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 2 Quotes
The business media called the move stupid and Wall Street analysts downgraded the stock. Smith never wavered. Twenty-five years later, Kimberly-Clark owned Scott Paper outright and beat Procter & Gamble in six of eight product categories. In retirement, Smith reflected on his exceptional performance, saying simply, “I never stopped trying to become qualified for the job.”
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Darwin E. Smith Character Timeline in Good to Great
The timeline below shows where the character Darwin E. Smith appears in Good to Great. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 2
Collins opens with an anecdote about Darwin E. Smith, a former CEO of the paper company Kimberly-Clark. Despite being mild-mannered and lacking experience, Smith...
(full context)
Collins characterizes Smith as an example of a Level 5 Leader. Level 5 Leaders “blend extreme personal humility...
(full context)
Chapter 4
...when the outlook was bleak. Collins gives the example of Kimberly-Clark and its CEO Darwin Smith, who used the idea of competing against Proctor & Gamble, a powerful rival, as a...
(full context)
