Eight Themes
Peters and Waterman found eight common themes which they argued were responsible for the success of the chosen corporations. The book devotes one chapter to each theme.
- A bias for action, active decision making - 'getting on with it'. Facilitate quick decision making & problem solving tends to avoid bureaucratic control
- Close to the customer - learning from the people served by the business.
- Autonomy and entrepreneurship - fostering innovation and nurturing 'champions'.
- Productivity through people- treating rank and file employees as a source of quality.
- Hands-on, value-driven - management philosophy that guides everyday practice - management showing its commitment.
- Stick to the knitting - stay with the business that you know.
- Simple form, lean staff - some of the best companies have minimal HQ staff.
- Simultaneous loose-tight properties - autonomy in shop-floor activities plus centralized values.
Read more about this topic: In Search Of Excellence
Famous quotes containing the word themes:
“In economics, we borrowed from the Bourbons; in foreign policy, we drew on themes fashioned by the nomad warriors of the Eurasian steppes. In spiritual matters, we emulated the braying intolerance of our archenemies, the Shi’ite fundamentalists.”
—Barbara Ehrenreich (b. 1941)
“I suppose you think that persons who are as old as your father and myself are always thinking about very grave things, but I know that we are meditating the same old themes that we did when we were ten years old, only we go more gravely about it.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)