dispatches from the new world of work

Excellence25

Moet bottle and cork in the grass of Boston Common

The biz book biz has gone bonkers since In Search of Excellence. (Hey, I've added 14 others to the pile.) On the other hand, the "Eight Basics" of Search have held up damn well (as have most of the companies—though "built to last," as you know by now, leaves me cold):

1. A Bias for Action. Call it "implementation." Call it "execution." It's the heart of both those key ideas. Too much talk, too little do. Problem-opportunity #1, 1982. Problem-opportunity #1, 2007. And a beast as one grows—and acquires.

2. Close to the Customer. Call it "loyalty" or "customer intimacy" or (God help us) "customer-centric organization." Though I'd move it down to #3 today (people #2), it's as fresh as ever and honored in the breach—again, particularly as giantism emerges. Come hell and/or high water, get close-as-hell to that customer, listen to that customer, and love up that customer for all you're worth.

3. Autonomy and Entrepreneurship. This was, more or less, our innovation piece. Let 1,000 flowers bloom—and then turn it over to Darwin. No autonomy, no accountability; no autonomy, no insane investment in new stuff.

4. Productivity Through People. Obvious—1982. Obvious—2007. But truly "people-obsessed companies" ("talent-obsessed" today) are still rare as can be—we keep trotting out GE's people development process for a reason—we can't think of anyone else among the giants.

5. Hands On, Value-Driven. MBWA/Managing By Wandering Around (circa 1982 and HP). MBWA today!! Absent then. Absent now. Run a place by values-first leadership? Then. Now. Rare.

6. Stick to the Knitting. Misunderstood in '82. We bought Richard Rumelt's (UCLA) act—and I still do. He called the winning approach "related diversification." It ain't about sticking with a pat hand, however "excellent" today—it is about hanging in with stuff you understand. Still a good idea—just ask the private equity boys (and girls), circa 2006.

7. Simple Form, Lean Staff. We pleaded for this in 1982, but we were not aggressive enough. And, of course, there were no Internet-run companies and no outsourcing. Still, the basic idea is fresh as a daisy—and rare as apple blossoms in January in Boston. (Whoops.)

8. Simultaneous Loose-Tight Properties. Confusing to some, gospel to a few (Bob Stone—the exec in charge of re-inventing government in the 90s, who accomplished a helluva lot more than most people realize). Idea: Stick with a few key values ... then let her rip! ("Change anything not 'below the waterline'" was the way W.L. Gore founder Bill Gore put it to us—and it's still working for his firm today. (Or I hope it is—I'm depending on GORE-TEX® when I go hiking in New Zealand at the end of this month.)

Of course there are a jillion ways to say any of these—but their simplicity was the trick. I could as easily give a speech covering these exact ideas with these exact words today as 25 years ago. For instance, when I recently learned that Starbucks founder Howard Schultz visits 25 stores per week and that former Goldman Sachs boss Hank Paulson used to call 70 clients right after New Year's just to "check in," I said—"MBWA then for the best, MBWA now for the best." (Hint: I will be giving some speeches this year with the so-called "eight basics" as my exact outline. Sure my increasingly noisy "women's stuff" will be fit into "close to the customer" and "productivity through people," but the basic outline will be familiar.)

Above picture: aftermath of New Year's—Boston Common, 1 January 2007 @ 7 a.m.

Tom Peters posted this on 01/02/07.

Comments

Twenty five years late, over Christmas I finally got round to reading In Search of Excellence. Having made it at last, it is encouraging to see that you still believe it to be as relevant in todayâ€™s business world. After 40 years in the UK automotive industry it is interesting to look at how we stacked up in the Excellence stakes. In parts quite well, but never with sufficient consistency and top down commitment seems to be the answer. And sadly, in most areas, we wouldnâ€™t have scored at all.

While some of the eight principles seem quite challenging, most are common sense, so why did we, in common with many other industries fail to get the message until it was too late? A sadly missed opportunity.

Posted by David Wike at January 2, 2007 4:17 PM

Hi David - as you and I know there are many managers in the National Health Service in the UK who have still not heard of Toms book - after all it was only published 25 years ago ... so in a few year time they will no doubt discover it ...

Posted by Trevor Gay at January 2, 2007 5:30 PM

Folks - check out some of the work Accenture are doing on analysing high performance businesses. The most interesting find: sheer size is not a requirement for high performance and there are in fact diseconomies to massive size. It mightn't be a total surprise to everyone here but it's interesting to see this idea beginning to get picked up in the wider world. http://www.accenture.com/Global/Research_and_Insights/Outlook/

Posted by Mark JF at January 3, 2007 4:06 AM