ABSTRACT
Ten years ago, Peters and Waterman (1982) published the best selling book, In Search of Excellence, which has sold at least 5 million copies in 16 languages.! In the book, Peters and Waterman reported the results of a study in which they selected 43 excellent companies and identified eight attributes that made those companies excellent. As Augustine's words state, they were looking for perfection in management so that other companies could compare themselves with the excellent companies in order to discover their own imperfections and what to do about them. As predicted by the Chinese proverb, however, none of these companies turned out to be perfect. Within 2 years, Businessweek ("Who's Excellent," 1984) reported that "at least 14 of the 43 excellent companies ... had lost their luster . . . - significant earnings declines that stem from serious business problems, management problems, or both" (p. 76).
