In Search of Excellence

A Review by,

Vishal Singh

About the Authors Thomas J. "Tom" Peters is an American

writer on business management practices. He is an MBA and Ph.D. from Stanford

Business School. He also received an honorary doctorate from the State University of Management in Moscow.

Peters worked as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company.

He was referred to in a British Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) publication as one of the world's Quality Gurus.

He known as “Father of the Post Modern Corporation” and He is the chairman of Tom Peters Company.

Robert H. Waterman, Jr. is a non-fiction author and expert on business management practices.

He earned his MBA from Stanford University and his Degree in Geophysics from the Colorado School of Mines.

Mr. Waterman serves as Chair Person of the RLS Foundation. He also serves on the boards of the World Wildlife Fund, Scleroderma Research Foundation, ASK Group, Boise Cascade, and McKesson.

Mr. Waterman currently directs his own company, The Waterman Group, Inc.

About the Authors

Author described eight principles in this book and their applications in Management.

Also they told how the Best-run Companies use these eight principles to stay on Top of the heap.

The eight principles are about how to run a successful business and stay ahead of competitors.

Eight Principles

In its simplest term, this says “get out there and try something.”

Just as you don’t learn anything in science without experiment, you don’t learn anything in business without trying, failing and trying again.

The trick, and it’s tough times lets you understand what kind of failure is okay and what kind leads to disaster.

No amount of analysis, especially market research, will lead to true innovation.

One

“A bias for action: a

preference for doing something

- anything - rather than sending a

question through cycles and cycles of analyses and

committee reports.”

There’s so much to pay attention to in side an organization that has time to understand customers.

Especially when the set of customers includes distributors and irrational end users.

Combined with a formidable innovative capability, may explain that company’s incredibly long history of success.

Two

“Staying close to the customer –

learning his preferences and

catering to them.”

This means “Even if you’re big, act small”

Organizations are simply collection of people, and people don’t relate well to big, abstract entities.

If you want to understand the success of Johnsons & Johnsons, 3M, Wal-Mart, and the original HP, look into the fact that they organize themselves into small, relatively independent units.

Held together by common goals and cultural norms.

Three

“Autonomy and entrepreneurship

- breaking the corporation into small companies and encouraging

them to think independently

and competitively.”

As a youngster say, “Duh!” What else counts in an organization except people?

Everyone gives lip service to the importance of their people, yet only a few really treat them as other than cannon fodder.

One of the best examples we’ve ever seen was Delta Airlines with its “Family Feeling” which was so special that employees banned together to spend a total of $30 million in payroll deductions to give their employer its first Boeing 767, the Spirit of Delta.

Four

“Productivity though people – creating in all employees the awareness that

their bets efforts are essential and

that they will share in the

rewards of the company’s success.”

The idea is simple. Figure out what your company should stand for, what would give your people the most pride.

Remember that profit is to business as breathing is to life.

The top companies make meaning, not just money.

Five

“Hands-on, value driven – insisting that executives keep in touch with the firm’s

essential business.”

Except for one or two exceptions business diversity almost never works.

Be particularly leery of the word synergy, which sounds great - who doesn’t want 1+1 to equal 3?

Big mergers rarely work. Nothing screw up a successful business more than a hyper fast growth.

Six

“Stick to the knitting –

remaining with the business the company knows

best.”

One ought not make them more so via complex organizational arrangements.

Install a simple and workable structure, people will figure out the rest.

Keep staff to a minimum, outsource a lot of staff activities, or use time-limited, project oriented task forces.

Big staff, and most career staff people, always seem to get in the way of the folks in organizations who get the real work done.

Seven

“Simple form, lean staff – Few administrative

layers, few people at the upper levels.”

Any well-functioning organization is neither centralized nor decentralized but a wonderful combination of both.

Around most dimensions the best companies, then and now, are loose.

They give people exceptional freedom to do things their own way.

At the same time, the great companies are highly centralized around a few crucial dimensions: the central value that make up their culture, one or two top strategic properties, a few key financial indicators.

Eight

“Simultaneous loose-tight

properties - fostering a

climate where there is

dedication to the central values of

the company combined with

tolerance for all employees who

accept those values.”

Conclusion

……Queries Invited

Thank You…