I like this book because it confirms all my prejudices about management (and mismanagement). Even aside from this bold statement of bias I think the book is written in an admirably clean style with a remarkable lack of hype (notable for a book on company management). This is not a dry academic text, nor is it a book dedicated to hyping a new management fad. I like the style, and I like what it says. I would would work for any company which followed the principles Peters and Waterman write about.

(Peters and Waterman are former McKinsey consultants with a number of independent titles to their name. Most of the case history which underlies the book comes from their work and research at McKinsey and Company.)

(A Quote from the Introduction)

"...So we take some exception to traditional theory, principally because our evidence about how human beings work- individually and in large groups- leads us to revise several important economic tenets dealing with size (scale economies), precision (limits to analysis), and the ability to achieve extraordinary results (particularly quality) with quite average people.

The findings from the excellent companies amount to an upbeat message. There is good news from America. Good management practice today is not resident only in Japan. But, more impoertant, the good news comes fom treating people decently and asking them to shine, and from producing things that work. Scale efficencies give way to small units with turned-on people. Precisely planned R&D effots aimed at big bang products are replaced by armies of dedicated chmpions. A numbing focus on cost gives way to enhancing focus on quality. Hierachy and three-pice suits give way to first names, shirtsleeves, hoopla, and project based flexibility. Working according to fat rule books is replaced by everyone's contributing,

Even management's job becomes more fun. Instead of brain games in sterile ivory tower, it's shaping values and reinforcing through coaching and evangelism in the field- with the worker in support of the cherished product.

This book will elaborate more fully on what we have just descirbed. It will define what we mean by excellence. It is an attempt to generalize about what the excellent compaines seem to be doing that the rest are not, and to buttress our observations on the excellent companiessound social and economic theory. And, finally, it will employ field data too often overlooked in books on management- namely, specific, concrete examples from the companies themselelves."