Read this a LONG time ago, but I was recently reminded of it while reading After Virtue.

I read this book 25 years ago--Well thought out and seminal--Reads like Sun Tzu and the art of war applied to business--I totally agree with some of Peters and Waterman's conclusions - Close to the customer--the feedback loop, shared vision statements of 3 core values or less--Innovation, agile organization shape--informal feedback, and celebrating wins, and celebrating attempts, even failures-Many organizations pay broad lip service to these values--As Peters states in the 80's American Leadership and ingenuity made American Corporations the most productive and the envy of the world. They owe a broad debt to Col John Boyd's Maneuver Warfare--Being more agile, supple, and flexible than archaic organizations with no creativity

"Know Yourself, and know the opposition completely you will be victorious in 100 Battles " Sun Tzu

In Search of Excellence was one of the 1980's best-selling books.

The authors analyzed some successful companies attempting to identify the eight attributes they had in common.

Since then, more than half of those "excellent" companies disappeared, got acquired and disassembled, or went through extreme difficulties, indicating that the eight attributes were just simply things the companies did well at the time, but were not the answer to long term success.

However, this book is still a good read for those wishing to track the evolution of management to present days.

Ideas muy interesantes, pero demasiado prolijo y extenso.

Once upon a time, corps searched for excellence too, not just maximum quarterly profits.

Super recomendado para quienes quieren encontrar el camino de la excelencia en la empresa y en la vida

Boring.
I listened to the audio version of the book and it was slow and painful. Their ideas are good, but the prolong examples were more matter than meat. This is a book that is better skimmed than read.

I read the book in Dec 2008 and some of the companies mentioned either don't exist or have been bought up by others. I would really like to see a follow up to the book and see how the companies are doing and if the priciples Peters extols have worked.

I was convinced at the time. Now I'm not so sure that it wasn't a trick. The apparent message is great but not so sure whether it was just a ruse. Sad. One of those seminal books along the way I guess.

the first part overly emphasize on literature review, mentioned about various theories in the part about management. It's not too bad and perhaps can be interesting to certain audiences. However I felt it's too dragging and the connection is not truly directed.

Very well researched and put together, yet still a pretty easy read. The use of many examples to illustrate points made things come to life. I learnt more in this book than in many a university unit. It is a shame that many of these principles are not taught or practiced by the vast majority of leaders and managers.
The focus on the simple things, and doing those well really does have much to be said about them.

It is ambivalent for me to rate this book, 3.5 stars at max. I intend to rate it 4 stars, but the book is written in a very technical and ambiguous way for reader very hard to assimilate the idea of the book. It seems the author reiterates the idea through out the whole books trying to fit in his 8 principles of managing a company.

It's biased to compare the excellent company with the rest and speculate the conclusion. But, the book remains a classic management business book for 35 years (published at 1982), there must be a reason behind this. I rather recommend people who are interested in entrepreneurship or management to read Tony Hsieh, "Delivering Happiness". The book is full of Tony personal touch and business philosophy about his Zappos, and how he empowers his employee fully in charge for customer service line.

At first, the author describes the "Rational Model" of people and organization are not "rational" in the ways of strategy. It's dangerous to try to force a simplistic and misguided rationality on the way to manage. The organization cannot just manage by numbers. People are wonderfully different and complex. Leaders need to set people free to help, not harness them. And the hardest thing to manage is the intangible stuff, the company culture. The author will elaborate more in chapter 3 & 4 as in "managing ambiguity and paradox", "Man waiting for motivation".

The author articulated a wonderful way of explaining imbalance of managing ambiguity. Stanford's Harold Leavitt views the managing process as an interactive flow of three variables: path-finder, decision making, and implementation. The problem of the modern organization is that it addresses only the middle element, decision making.

Obviously, the three process are interconnected, and emphasis on any one trait to the execution of the other is dangerous. The business ranks are full of would-be path finders, artists who can't get anything done. Likewise, implementers abound-compromising salesman who have no vision. And the pitfalls of those who overemphasize decision making on the tangible numbers.

Anyhow, I still think I should give the credit to the author who did a wonderful research and meticulous interview with all the excellent companies. In this book, he describes, all the excellent companies share a common trait to success.

1. Bias for action. The company is action oriented, a bias for getting things done. The excellent companies get quick action just because their organizations are fluid. They start with a remarkably high degree of informal communication, which is the key.

2. Close to the customer. Service, quality, reliabilities are strategies aimed at loyalty and long-term revenue stream growth. The excellent companies are wonderful customer oriented. "They believe the sale really begins after the sale, not before. Most of their renovation comes from the market by embracing the feedback from the lead user of the market and experimenting their protocol products. (Minimum Viable Products).

3. Autonomy and entrepreneurship. They encourage the entrepreneurial spirit among their people because they push autonomy remarkably to the downline. They also leave enough maneuvering room for an ambitious researcher to engage in any project to develop the company growth.

4. Productivity through people. Treat people as adults. Treat them as partners, treat them with dignity, respect, and trust. The excellent company treats their people as one of the important assets. They tend to decentralized the management authority to smallness organizations. The point is that even in a huge organization like Church, very few layers are needed to make things work. Excessive layering maybe the biggest problem of slow moving, rigid bureaucracy.

5. Hands-on, value driven. I wouldn't take the example from the book but I believe everyone aware that excellent company is the visionary leader with clear objectives and goal. For instance, Zappos advocating employee to delivering happiness to the doorstep of the customer.

6. Stick to the knitting. In the book, the author basically describes the typical diversification dilutes the company value and goal. The company who know their game and objective clear enough outperform all others.

7. Simple form, lean staff. Keeping things simple. Clarity on company values is also an important part of the underlying touchstone for stability and simplicity as well. The company are adaptive and flexible enough in responding to fast-changing conditions in the environment,

8. Simultaneous loose-tight properties. In the book, Art of war by Sun Tzu. He describes at war, an army needs to be adaptive to the external conditions in order to survive in any environment, he calls it "Emptiness and Fullness". Chinese would like to refer as " Yin & Yang". Management needs to be disciple enough to cultivate a disciplined culture in the company. It is perhaps the most stringent means of self-discipline in every employee.

All these basic principles are a pleasant surprise. It is simple and clear. But the excellent companies were, above all, are brilliant in the basics. Rather, these companies worked hard to keep things simple in a complex world. they persisted.

Required reading for anyone looking to harness the power of company culture