In Search of Excellence Lessons From America's Best Run Companies by Thomas J. Peters and Robert H. Waterman

In Search of Excellence Lessons From America's Best Run Companies by Thomas J. Peters and Robert H. Waterman

When this book came out in 1982 it was a bestselling business book. The copyright on the book I read was 2004. This book has stood the test of time. I found out about it when I was reading How The Mighty Fall by Jim Collins. Jim Collins wrote the bestselling business book, Good To Great.

There seem to be a lot of worthwhile ideas in this book. It is not just a collection of 43 top companies, and eight business success principles backed by a ton of statistics. This book is full of entertaining examples and implementable ideas.

The writers counter the idea of rigid organization charts, pure numbers, and closed door management styles. The book reminds to be close to the customer and pay attention. The authors make the claim that it is more important to pay close attention to what people are doing than to go to extremes of reward or punishment.

The management examples in this book come from real companies. Hewlett Packard uses MBWA (Management by Wandering Around). Proctor and Gamble use the principle of limiting most memos and reports to a single page. Both of these are things I see every day where I work.

There are some striking almost counterintuitive ideas in this book. The authors claim that focusing on pure numbers leads to cost cutting but not necessarily improvements in sales. The cost of customer service and sales preparation are often hard to quantify.

This was an entertaining book on how to improve business performance. The authors claim the main source of business improvement is human factors; customer service, action orientation, values, entrepreneurship, productivity, and openness. The book was very easy to follow. There was an extensive bibliography and index. Reading it was informative. It made me think.

Daily Thoughts 8/4/2009

Photograph of Robert Louis Stevenson, 1880

Daily Thoughts 8/4/2009

I am almost done reading In Search of Excellence. I think I will finish reading it by the end of today. I am looking at another book, Planet Google, One Company's Audacious Plan to Organize Everything We Know by Randall Stross.

Today was another quiet day. I did more weeding in the 700s. We also had a planning meeting for programming for September through December. There should be some interesting programmig coming up; computer classes, a graphic novel book club, library tours, a display for banned books, some poetry classes, and other events. It was a group effort of which I was a small part.

I looked at the suggestion sheet from patrons and added a few books to my order.

On the train home, I finished reading In Search of Excellence. I rather liked the concept that creativity is innovation which has not been implemented. I started reading How You Make The Sale by Frank McNair. The book is on consultative selling or selling by focusing on solving the customers needs or problems. It is a very customer centric approach. I am learning about the idea of "close to the customer".

Daily Thoughts 8/3/2009

John Hersey. Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, Carl Van Vechten collection, [reproduction number, e.g., LC-USZ62-54231]

Daily Thougts 8/3/2009

Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 has been turned into a graphic novel.

http://www.usatoday.com/life/books/news/2009-08-02-bradbury-fahrenheit-451-graphic-novel_N.htm

This morning I did some more weeding in the 700s section. I also worked on genrifying the "new arrivals" section, adding signs for mystery, romance, and science fiction. This should make it easier for people to find what they want.

I am still reading In Search of Excellence. There were some interesting points being made in the book. I found the idea that it is sometimes more important to pay attention to what people are doing than punish or reward people rather interesting. There are a lot of ideas like this in the book; managing by wandering around, staying close to the customer, and accepting small mistakes if it leads to more action are some of the more intriguing ideas.

I wrote the monthly report this month. The report switches between myself and a colleague. We follow the Proctor & Gamble idea of putting everything on a single. This means everything has to be very condensed and focused.

Thoughts 8/2/2009

Portrait of Virginia Woolf by Roger Fry, 1917

Thoughts 8/2/2009

I read some more of In Search of Excellence today. The section I am reading is on motivation. They make a few interesting claims; positive reinforcement works better than negative reinforcement, it is better to have a culture focused on serving the customer than one focused on internal politics, and people need to find meaning in their work. The book is quite thoughtful. It draws from psychology, management theory, and examples from real companies like Caterpillar, IBM, and Ore-Ida. The writing is entertaining.

I tried to start reading Warhammer Elfslayer A Gotrix & Felix Novel by Nathan Long. After the first chapter I put it down. It was predictable and formulaic to the point of being mildly ridiculous. Some books are not worth reading or reviewing.

Thoughts 8/1/2009 ( Latino Books Examiner )

Joseph Conrad, London, March 11, 1916, From New York Public Library Digital Gallery.

Thoughts 8/1/2009

I am at my local library right now. I went and looked at a couple books on writing and speaking this morning; basic stuff like Arco How To Write Research Papers and Public Speaking for Wimps. It was pleasant walking up here. I haven't been here for a couple of weeks. I picked up a copy of a serial gaming novel, Warhammer, Elfslayer by Nathan Long. It looks like easy mindless entertainment. Something to distract me from thinking too much.

This afternoon, I read some more of In Search Of Excellence. The book is writing about how overreliance on numbers can be detrimental. Financial numbers by their nature are designed to preserve capital. They are mainly used to rein in expenditures. Often qualitative factors like customer service and "good will" are hard to quantify even though they bring in revenue. Almost all of the factors identified in this book which bring excellence to a corporation are focused on people. This book is very much focused on the "human factor."

Web Bits

I was looking at Twitter when I noticed this site, Latino Books Examiner. I found it interesting. http://www.examiner.com/x-6309-Latino-Books-Examiner

Daily Thoughts 7/30/2009

The Great Library at Osgoode Hall, Toronto, Canada, 1870

Daily Thoughts 7/30/2009

I did some more weeding in the large print section today as well as the 700s. It is all about consistency. There has been an increase in the use of large print because we have the bookmobile going out more often to the local armory. This means we have to get better material for the seniors to increase circulation.

The library has set up two more laptops for working with the collection. So there are now three laptops to work with the collection.

I'm thinking about programming again. I have not written any poetry in a while. We are going to have a gentleman doing a session teaching poetry in August.

Our computer technician is printing up some signage for genre section in the new books area; romance, African American, mystery, and science fiction. I found another site for African American fiction http://www.mosaicbooks.com/ .

This is a list of the Eisner Awards from San Diego Comic Con. They are the premier awards for comics in the United States. The Eisner Awards are named after Will Eisner one of the greatest comic book artists. http://www.comic-con.org/cci/cci_eisners_main.shtml

On the way home, I read some of the book, In Search of Excellence Lessons From America's Best Run Companies by Thomas J. Peters and Robert H. Waterman, Jr.. In its time this book was a bestselling business book. It is also considered by some to be one of the best business books ever written. I have just started on it. Mostly, it sounds like common sense so far.