Old Business Strategy vs. New Business
My home for the summer was Byron Bay, Australia. This small town is surrounded by more small towns. The book stores are selective and the libraries are limited. After receiving the email regarding the summer reading requirements, I began my local search. Byron Bay is known for the alternative life style and free spirited residents. Instead of finding Tom Peters’ In Search of Excellence or Jim Collins’ Good to Great, I was more likely to find In search of Astrology and Gourds to Grapes: Your guide to organic living. So I used the internet. I ordered both books but received only one in the delivery. When I called to inquire about the lost book, I was informed that the book, In Search of Excellence, was over twenty years old and out of print in Australia. My immediate thoughts were “how is an old business management book going to relate to this more recent book written by Collins?” My understanding is as follows.
Tom Peters and Robert Waterman discovered eight shared principles in a matrix of successful companies from the 1980’s. Their book, In Search of Excellence, uses familiar themes that relate to the best-run businesses of the time. Although some themes seem palpable to business today, companies in the 1980’s may have viewed these principles as innovative philosophies.
For example, the fifth principle of In Search of Excellence is “hands-on, value-driven” (Peters, 279). This idea uses values enforced by an organization to achieve consistent results. A quote from the president of PepsiCo, Andy Pearson, reads “Perhaps the most subtle challenge facing us in the decade of the eighties is to ensure that PepsiCo remains an exciting place to work” (Peters, 291). Ironically, one of the values of my current employer, the Center for Information and Communication Sciences at Ball State University, is “work hard, play hard.” Did the Center adopt this belief after reading In Search of Excellence? I believe in all work environments, there must be a de-stressing method. This becomes obvious as the morale of the environment begins to fluctuate. In 1982, when Peters and Waterman published In Search of Excellence, this theme may have been a newer discovery. The other seven principles of In Search of Excellence still relate to management in this 21st century. However, instead of being innovative in the eyes of management today, these principles are familiar concepts necessary in all business.
Jim Collins and his team of researchers for Good to Great developed a similar framework of concepts necessary for companies to evolve. Although they are not broken down into the same categories, there are strong similarities between the concepts of Good to Great and In Search of Excellence. The “hands-on, value-driven” example from In Search of Excellence can be compared to the “culture of discipline” (Collins, 120) idea in Good to Great. Collins found that the good-to-great companies developed a consistent system with clear constraints, or values, but also allowed employees to have freedom and responsibility within the system of values (Collins, 125). This example illustrates the link between In Search of Excellence’s idea of using values to achieve consistent results and Good to Great’s concept of first enforcing values and then allowing freedom within a framework in order to produce results.
What keeps Good to Great from being an updated version of In Search of Excellence is the focus on managing the system rather than the people. Good to Great puts more emphasis on getting the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and then figuring out where to drive it (Collins, 41). This is a system to follow, not a lesson in how to inspire people to be in the right seat. In Search of Excellence highlights more manager/employee relationships, placing focus on how to get employees to be more productive. Good to Great’s response to unproductive employees would be why are they on the bus in the first place?
Now two weeks into the Center for Information and Communication Sciences program, I have an understanding for the importance of management and leadership. The use of examples throughout both books helped me think of each principle in relation to my field. The reference to technology in Good to Great was especially eye opening as I enter an information technology driven program. Technology is not the answer to everything. So I must learn how to use technology appropriately to be successful.
Referring back to my questionable thoughts on how a twenty year old business book can be applied to today’s industry; basic principles don’t change. In Search of Excellence surveyed successful companies to find a method behind their greatness. Two decades later, Good to Great was able to do comparable research, finding similar results. If in twenty more years another book is written, the basics will still be there. Overall, I enjoyed most of the two readings and look forward to more thought-provoking books in the future.
References Cited:
Peters, T.J, Waterman Jr., R.H. (1982). In Search of Excellence. New York: HarperCollins.
Collins, J. (2001). Good to Great: Why some companies make the leap…and others don’t. London: Random House Business Books.