Collins summarises one of the most important good-to-great findings with a simple phrase: first who, then what. The conventional picture of great leadership runs like this: a visionary leader arrives, sees clearly where the organisation should go, and inspires everyone to follow them there. The leader's vision is the starting point. What Collins found in practice was different. The leaders who built great companies started not with strategy but with people. Before deciding where to go, they focused on getting the right people into the organisation and, just as importantly, getting the wrong people out. The reasoning is practical. If you have the wrong people, the best strategy in the world will not save you. If you have the right people, problems of strategy largely solve themselves: the right people are curious, motivated, and capable of working out what needs to be done. Collins uses the metaphor of a bus: you want the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people in the right seats before you decide where the bus is going. The direction of the bus matters, but it is secondary to the quality of who is on it. This principle is also a safeguard. When strategy changes because the environment changes, great people adapt. Great people on a bad strategy can usually recover. The reverse is much harder.