a very interesting book about some of the greatest companies in the 21st century and what made them so successful. one of the key themes here is focus on quality and customer service. i liked the focus these great companies had on values and simplicity in general and not having complex structures. rewarding teh individual was also important as was the need to innovate. worth reading with some good insights into customer service, quality, sales and some interesting anecdotes peppered throughout the book.

Here are the best bits:

Fletcher Byrom's commandment: make sure you generate a reasonable number of mistakes.

In five years with virtually no replacement of the Midwest and U S workforce the handful of Japanese general managers managed to cut the warranty bill from 22 million to $3.5 million. To cut defects per 100 sets from 140 to 6, to cut first 90 days after sale complaints from 70% to 7%, and to reduce personal turnover from 30% to 1%.

Analyze plan tell specifying checkup are the words of the rational process. Interact test try fail stay in touch learn shift direction adapt modify and see are some of the words of the informal managing processes. We hear the latter much more often in our interviews with top performers. Intel puts in extra conference rooms simply to increase the likelihood of informal problem solving among different disciplines. 3M sponsors all sorts of clubs specifically to enhance interaction.

Profit is like health. You need it and the more the better. But it's not why you exist.

If you place in a bottle half a dozen bees and the same number of flies and lay the bottle down horizontally with its base to the window you will find that the bees will persist till they die of exhaustion or hunger in their endeavor to discover a gap through the glass. While the flies in less than two minutes will have all sallied forth through the neck on the opposite side. It is their love of light (the bees) it is their very intelligence that is their undoing in this experiment. They evidently imagine that the gap is where the light shines the clearest and they act in accordance and persist in to logical action. To them glass is a supernatural mystery they never have met in nature. They have had no experience of this. Whereas the feather brained flies careless of logic as the enigma of crystal disregarding the call of the light flutter wildly hither and thither eventually randomly fly out of the glass.

Another vital spur for informal communication is the deployment of similar simple physical configurations. Corning glass installed escalators rather than elevators in its new engineering building to increase the chance of face to face contact.

There's one thing that I do that a lot of salesman don't: and that's believe that the sale really begins after sale.

Read it slow, chew the cud, read again. It is a wonderful book. Not everyone's read though.

The book is written by

This is a timeless self-improvement book. I read this more than a couple of decades ago but I can still remember Bias for Action and Be Close to the Customer. I was just starting my career then and I consider myself fortunate to having read a nice book that I could apply in my corporate life. I can also recall the story about Disney where regular office employees assume a cartoon character role (wearing costume and mask) once in a while just to interact with their customers. I was thinking about this when for the first time last year, I went to Disneyland Hong Kong and interacted with Snow White, Buzz and Pluto. BTW, they did not sound like office employees to me.

Interesting if somewhat dated assessment of the ingredients of an excellent company. The authors clearly draw heavily on their network of contacts from work in the field with the biggest name in consulting: McKinsey. It provides a valuable summary of the essential ingredients to success, in their opinion, by stating 8 key areas and how they apply to the McKinsey 7s. Easier to read than some it provides a good combination of theory supported by examples. My biggest criticism is that the examples are often drawn from a handful of companies - which are particularly today not that relevant and sometimes came across as contrived to suit the example they were drawn on to illustrate. Nonetheless the language is largely clear and jargon free - more so than many of it's successors and still makes for an interesting read of an important study of its time.

Keep it simple: create a simple but encompassing set of rules and values and then treat people like adults. Give them freedom and support. Values should revolve around client, transparency, quality, respect, commitment. The 8 areas treated are summarized in the first pages of the book.

In Search of Excellence is another book that consistently shows up on "best business books" lists. Having made a commitment to take a deeper diver dive into professional literature and read some of its seminal works, I took a chance on In Search of Excellence. Unfortunately I had a similar reaction to it as I did other influential books of its kind; to wit, it's overly long, intellectually obtuse and redundant, and too often pretentious.

The biggest problem with In Search of Excellence is its unnecessary density. One positive trend I see in some business books of today are their limited scope. (I realize this poses problems because a singular focus on one or two topics can incorrectly suggest those concepts are the magic bullet for an organization's ills. There is great value in being a generalist and in knowing something, even one thing, about a lot). This book seeks to identify and delineate too many ideas, too many principles, and too many examples. So much of it gets lost in the deluge of information. Using one or two truly significant examples can do much more to prove a point than an interminable explanation of a single concept.

No doubt there is plenty to learn in the book if you're paying attention. Shockingly some of the principles outlined in the book which I believe are solid and effective are often not applied or misapplied. If they were well-known and consistently applied, then we wouldn't have gotten a book like Good to Great, which was published in 2001—nearly twenty years after In Search of Excellence. Every generation it seems has to re-discover fundamental principles of human nature, management, and organizational effectiveness. With that said, a book like this is at an immediate disadvantage the second it is published. Since its goal is to identify excellent companies at the time, it is naturally a snapshot of their performance, albeit that performance may historically be impressive. It's easy to criticize the authors' selection of companies the moment those companies falter.

Perhaps the most frustrating thing about a book like In Search of Excellence is that it says so much, but I remember so very little. The book is bloated and surprisingly unmemorable. A fastidious reader can find some value in it, as you could in most books. However, this is not a "classic" I'm terribly impressed with nor eager to recommend to others.

http://thethousanderclub.blogspot.com/

5 stars largely because this was the very first Business & Investing book I read -- way back in early high school -- and I enjoyed it enough to keep on reading in the genre. So thank you, Tom Peters, for giving me a nice first introduction to the exciting world of business.

A lot of wisdom for a 325 page book

"In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America's Best-Run Companies" by Tom Peters and Robert H. Waterman Jr. is a timeless classic that continues to inspire and guide leaders in their pursuit of organizational excellence. Published in 1982, the book presents an in-depth analysis of successful companies and identifies common principles and practices that contribute to their outstanding performance.

Overall, I found "In Search of Excellence" to be a groundbreaking and thought-provoking read. Peters and Waterman's writing style is engaging, and their extensive research and case studies provide compelling insights into the inner workings of exceptional organizations.

One of the book's key strengths is its emphasis on the importance of people-centered management. Peters and Waterman argue that successful companies prioritize their employees and foster a culture of empowerment, collaboration, and innovation. By showcasing companies that prioritize their workforce, the book highlights the significance of human capital in achieving sustainable success.

Another standout aspect of the book is its focus on customer orientation and market responsiveness. Peters and Waterman demonstrate how excellent companies adapt to changing market dynamics and consistently deliver value to their customers. Their emphasis on customer satisfaction and continuous improvement resonates with the core principles of successful organizations.

Moreover, "In Search of Excellence" challenges traditional management practices and encourages leaders to embrace a more flexible and adaptive approach. The authors advocate for decentralized decision-making, encouraging innovation at all levels, and maintaining a sense of urgency to respond to market demands.

While some critics argue that the book's examples may be outdated or that it oversimplifies the complexities of running a successful organization, the principles and concepts presented in "In Search of Excellence" remain relevant and applicable. The book provides a solid foundation for understanding the key drivers of organizational success and offers valuable insights for leaders in any industry.

In summary, "In Search of Excellence" is a classic and influential book that provides invaluable lessons on achieving excellence in business. Peters and Waterman's research and analysis offer practical strategies and principles that continue to guide leaders in their pursuit of organizational greatness. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in understanding the underlying factors that drive exceptional companies and aspiring to create a culture of excellence within their own organization.

So long yet so boring - most at authors personal opinions but trying to find some selective facts to back up. The contents are so disorganized I don’t really know wha I am reading into.

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