In Search of Excellence by Tom Peters & Robert H. Waterman Jr. — book cover

In Search of Excellence

Tom Peters & Robert H. Waterman Jr. · 1982

In Search of Excellence (1982) is a book by Tom Peters & Robert H. Waterman Jr. on business & strategy. Peters and Waterman studied 43 of America's best-run companies to crack the code of corporate excellence, distilling eight shared attributes, from a bias for action to sticking to the knitting, that rational management theory had missed entirely.

11 min read · 8 chapters · Business

Why it’s on the shelf

The book that killed the cold, number-crunching view of management and proved that America's best companies win through people, action, and obsessive customer love.

Two of the ideas you’ll keep

The Clif summary of In Search of Excellence pulls out 7 insights. Here are the first two.

  1. A **bias for action** beats analysis paralysis: excellent companies experiment, build quick prototypes, and form small ad-hoc teams. HP's 'management by wandering around' and the willingness to 'do it, fix it, try it' outrun rivals who study a problem to death.
  2. Stay **close to the customer** as a source of ideas, not just revenue. IBM's fanatical service, Frito-Lay's near-heroic delivery standard, and companies that learn their best product ideas from lead users treat obsessive customer listening as the engine of innovation.

The other 5 — and the full 11-minute summary — are in the app.

What’s inside: 8 chapters

The whole summary runs about 11 minutes, read or listened to.

  1. The Revolt Against the Rational Model
  2. The Study and the Seven-S Framework
  3. A Bias for Action
  4. Close to the Customer
  5. Autonomy and Entrepreneurship
  6. Productivity Through People
  7. Hands-On, Value-Driven & Stick to the Knitting
  8. Simple Form, Lean Staff & Simultaneous Loose-Tight

Finish In Search of Excellence tonight.

Read or listen to the full summary in about 11 minutes, then keep the ideas with a minute of review a day. Start with the 2-minute quiz — no card required.

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