One of the most popular books in the realm of business management in recent years is Jim Collins’ Good to Great . The book presents an analysis of the performance over a period of 40 years by 1,435 companies. All were judged to be “good” as measured by economic and management indicators, but only 11 made the transition from “good-to-great.” Collins’ book describes the characteristics of these “great” companies. As the College of Family and Consumer Sciences, along with the entire University of Georgia, “goes public” with our major fund-raising campaign Archway to Excellence I’ve been thinking about how we can move the College from good to great.

What does it take to move from good to great? A key element is what Collins’ described as “The Flywheel Effect,” wherein sustained steady effort creates the momentum to generate superior results. There was no “miracle moment,” but rather “a pragmatic, committed-to-excellence process” that kept the leaders and personnel in the great companies on track for the long haul. Among the College’s indicators of our continuous progress are enrollment growth, student achievement and satisfaction, increased grant funding and new audiences reached. In this issue, there is news about some of our achievements.

Another key observation from Good to Great is that great companies have a passion that drives their “economic engines.” The authors called this the “Hedgehog Concept.” The “Hedgehog Concept” is manifested in our College’s commitment to the land-grant university mission as applied to issues affecting families, consumers and communities. Our passion is summed up in the College slogan: “Knowledge for Real Life.” The relevance of our academic programs, research and public service is what drives the FACS “engine.”

What’s next? The key is to preserve core values and purpose while endlessly adapting to change. Our feature story on 101-year-old alumna Ella Nuite’s visit to the campus may prompt you to reflect on the enduring values of home economics. But as Miss Ella said to me when we met, “You have to keep changing with the times, and home economics (I mean, family and consumer sciences) certainly knows how to do that.”

Today, institutions of higher education depend on support from alumni and friends, as well as the private sector, to accelerate progress toward greatness. FACS is indeed fortunate to have such benefactors. The College reached our initial financial goal in the Archway to Excellence campaign before the public kick-off! Thank you, loyal and early donors!

We will be setting a new goal, because it is clear we can achieve more. The big campaign goals are listed on page 7. The feature story on our FACS Campaign Steering Committee provides insight into the dedication typical of FACS alumni and friends. We are grateful for their leadership. Katrina Bowers, director of development, and I will continue working closely with the committee throughout the Archway to Excellence campaign.

Are we there yet? In my view, going from good to great is a journey. We’re not there yet, but we are well on our way. Please join us by giving all you possibly can to assure that progress continues. The journey itself will be rewarding and the goals are achievable!

Sharon Y. Nickols, Dean