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    In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America's Best-Run Companies
    In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America's Best-Run Companies
    In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America's Best-Run Companies
    Ebook533 pages9 hours

    In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America's Best-Run Companies

    By Thomas J. Peters and Robert H. Waterman, Jr.

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    About this ebook

    The "Greatest Business Book of All Time" (Bloomsbury UK), In Search of Excellence has long been a must-have for the boardroom, business school, and bedside table.

    Based on a study of forty-three of America's best-run companies from a diverse array of business sectors, In Search of Excellence describes eight basic principles of management—action-stimulating, people-oriented, profit-maximizing practices—that made these organizations successful.

    Joining the HarperBusiness Essentials series, this phenomenal bestseller features a new Authors' Note, and reintroduces these vital principles in an accessible and practical way for today's management reader.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateNov 27, 2012
    ISBN9780062263612
    In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America's Best-Run Companies
    Author

    Thomas J. Peters

    Thomas J. Peters, "uber-guru of business" (Fortune and The Economist), is the author of many international bestsellers, including A Passion for Excellence and Thriving on Chaos. Peters, "the father of the post-modern corporation" (Los Angeles Times), is the chairman of Tom Peters Company and lives in Vermont.

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    Reviews for In Search of Excellence

    4/5

    22 ratings7 reviews

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    • 5/5
      I respect Mr. Peters tremendously. This book is a classic. Excellent from an Entrepreneur standpoint. Mindset is everything. Take advantage of this book. Hands down one of my favorites and 5 stars. Must have.
    • 5/5
      I haven't read a lot of business books, but I remember this making a bit impression on me back in the eighties. MBWA, the Golden Banana, stick to the knitting. It's a classic and it makes you want to go out and found a company!
    • 4/5
      Based on researches done by the authors (Peters and Waterman), this book discusses eight basics or themes that had proved, as per the authors, prevalent amongst ‘excellent’ companies more than 30 years ago; namely- A bias for action, Close to the customer, Autonomy and entrepreneurship, Productivity through people, Hands-on value-driven, Stick to the knitting, Simple form lean staff, and Simultaneous loose-tight properties.Although these eight basics are recommended to nurture excellence in any company, I am still in doubt whether they are timeless and sufficient. After reading the book, the first question that comes to one’s mind is that whether these ‘excellent’ companies are still so? If not, which was the real case with some of the mentioned companies, was it because of weaknesses in the 8 basics, or due to ‘invisible’ rules or basics that were not addressed by the authors in the book?The reader should avoid the trap of comparing her company to any of the companies mentioned in the book, instead, she should benchmark against the 8 basics per se. Companies change while basics do not if proven successful.Regardless of whether the performance of these ‘excellent’ companies are maintained throughout the years or have deteriorated, I believe this book is a must read for any executive or business leader as it still delineates some of the best business behaviors to survive global challenges existing over ages.
    • 5/5
      This merits its status as a classic. Twenty years later, it's still completely relevant. I also observed so many examples I've read in multiple more recent sources. Apparently, business and self-help authors have all read this book. Examples include the Hawthorn effect, the Sam Walton doughnut story, and the shock therapy experiment on authority. Also noteworthy are how many of these best-run companies are no longer leaders today (K-Mart) or have gone completely out of business (Western Electric).
    • 4/5
      Read for my library management class, very interesting. Ways to manage companies well without getting bogged down in bureaucracy. I wonder how many of the companies kept to the ideas in the book after it was originally written.
    • 5/5
      great book. learnt a lot from it . Old wisdom in modern language
    • 5/5
      This is among the best Management books and a must read for all those who want to take their teams, department and organization to highest levels in excellence.

      Rajat Dhameja

    Book preview

    In Search of Excellence - Thomas J. Peters

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