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Tom Peters and Robert Waterman, In Search of Excellence  (1982)Tom Peters and Robert Waterman, In Search of Excellence (1982)

 

Peters is an American management guru (pictured right) famous ever since this hugely influential and popular book.

Waterman (pictured right below) also became a successful management consultant and writer.

They were working for McKinsey, the American management consultants, when they wrote the book.

 Tom Peters and Robert Waterman, In Search of Excellence (1982)

See also...

Tom Peters and Robert Waterman in the Management Gurus section. 

 

Book summary

 

Why is this book so famous?

Its huge popularity changed the business book market overnight.

Millions worldwide were inspired by how business excellence was achieved by American companies like:Tom Peters and Robert Waterman, In Search of Excellence (1982)

  • Disney.
  • Wal-Mart Stores.

 

Characteristics of excellent companies

 

1. Hands-on value drivenTom Peters and Robert Waterman, In Search of Excellence (1982)

  • intense fanaticism about a few customer driven values (corporate culture)
  • a clear one page statement of the company’s purpose (identifying customers, employees, suppliers, shareholders and social responsibilities)
  • “chunking” (breaking things up into manageable units like small teams).

 

2. Close to the customerTom Peters and Robert Waterman, In Search of Excellence (1982)

  • being customer driven and not just talking about it.
  • love of the company’s customers and products.
  • an obsession with excellent service, quality and reliability.
  • defining yourself as a service business (even if you’re in manufacturing).
  • listening to and learning from customers (vital for suggestions about new products and improvements).

 Tom Peters and Robert Waterman, In Search of Excellence (1982)

3. A bias for action

  • a “do it, fix it, try it” mentality.
  • management based on informal contacts and getting managers out of the office (MBWA, management by wandering around).


 

4. Autonomy and entrepreneurship

Encouraging innovation through:

  • small business units and autonomous teams of 8-10 people (“skunk works”).Tom Peters and Robert Waterman, In Search of Excellence (1982) 
  • informality and experimentation.
  • product champions (who fanatically support a new product).
  • learning from mistakes and “tolerating failure”.
  • encouraging new ideas.
     

 

5. Productivity through people

Maximizing employee potential and performance through:

 

a) respectfully treating people as adults and equal partnersTom Peters and Robert Waterman, In Search of Excellence (1982)

Giving them:

  • self-determination. 
  • self-motivation. 
  • security.

 

b) rewarding results and sharing information

 Tom Peters and Robert Waterman, In Search of Excellence (1982)

c) small teams and business units

(so that people can more easily identify with them).

 

d) celebrating success and having fun

(“hoopla, celebration and verve”)

 Tom Peters and Robert Waterman, In Search of Excellence (1982)

e) humanity

Compassion mixed with:

  • tough performance standards.
  • continuous performance appraisal and feedback.

 Tom Peters and Robert Waterman, In Search of Excellence (1982)

f) wise recruitment 

(picking the right people with the right attitudes).

 

g) inspirational leadership

Leaders inspiring employees to become:

  • innovators.
  • leaders themselves.

 Tom Peters and Robert Waterman, In Search of Excellence (1982)

6. Sticking to the knitting

  • sticking “reasonably close” to the business(es) you know best.
  • never buy a business you don’t know how to run.

 

7. Simple form, lean staffTom Peters and Robert Waterman, In Search of Excellence (1982)

  • simple organization structure, minimizing head office staff and layers of management (the Roman Catholic Church has only five).
  • minimizing bureaucracy and paperwork.

 

8. Simultaneous loose-tight properties

A mixture of centralization and decentralization:

  • central control over the things that matter (e.g. values, quality and customer service) for consistency, and... 
  • autonomy given to divisions, teams and individual employees.

 

The 7-S Framework

Peters and Waterman wrote the book as employees of the American management consultants, McKinsey, and used its 7-S Framework (pictured right) to analyse an organization’s success:Tom Peters and Robert Waterman, In Search of Excellence (1982)

  • strategy 
  • structure.
  • systems (how things are done).
  • style (of leadership).
  • staff.
  • skills.
  • shared values (corporate culture).

 

Key quote on customers

Customers reign supreme.

 

Key quote on the learning organization

The excellent companies are learning organizations

 

Key quotes on business successs

Far too many managers have lost sight of the basics...quick action, service to customers, practical innovation and the fact that you can’t get any of these without virtually everyone’s commitment.

KISS: Keep It Simple Stupid!

 

Key quote on human resource management

Treat people as adults. Treat them as partners; treat them with dignity; treat them with respect.

The excellent companies require and demand extraordinary performance from the average man.

 

Key quote on corporate culture

The excellent companies live their commitment to people.

 

Key quote on products

They give people pride in what they do. They make it possible to love the product (talking about excellent companies)

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