In Search of Excellence
Thomas J. Peters and Robert H. Waterman, Jr., wrote “In Search of Excellence” as a model covering all elements of operations and functions of businesses big and small. In Search of Excellence gives great analysis and interesting examples to back up their theories. This book discusses eight core principles and McKinsey 7-S framework chart provided to companies for success.
The authors break down the topics into specific themes with thoughts and charts for knowledge. Their findings suggest that eight core principles are common for excellent organization; bias for action, close to the customer, autonomy and entrepreneurship, productivity through people, hands on, value driven, stick to knitting, focus on what you do best, simple form lean staff and balance between centralized/decentralized organization. The McKinsey 7-S Framework deals with strategy, structure, style, systems, staff (people), skills, and shared values (culture). Informal organizations can manage executives that are intractable, irrational and intuitive. When 7-S framework chart is used. Meaning that a new manger performance would be like the old manager is ludicrous. The organization of workers must adjust and adapt to the new manager’s way of business.
Peters and Waterman’s does a great job of explaining and giving examples of these eight principles while applying McKinsey 7-S framework chart. When nurturing and reward employees for excellence. Provide a climate of security and creativity in which employees developed loyalty and understanding of corporate values, and in turn developed to their full potential. Those long-term customer relationships based on trust, high quality and value in products and service. Re-inventing your company continuously within a defined sense of mission and social purpose.
The eight principles below demonstrate values that work because they make sense. Growth is really about: the ability to learn and teach. This research was the first of its kind identifying these principles.
The first principle is a bias for action. This is saying "Do it, work it or apply it" When Arby’s has a rush of customers and their supplies for making food are low, one customer would say "You know what, my food is cold" or "You forgot my pickles and onions?" They act and fix the problem, make it over if necessary, and get the problem solved as quickly as possible.
The second Principle is to be close to the customer. This means good service and listening to what the customer has to say. If the producer, Arby’s is not in touch with what the customer wants to eat, then the business will most likely fail.
Another thing that corresponds with my mindset is the 5 H's; #2 core value. What sticks in the back of my mind are being humble and hungry. Being humble and hungry are very powerful agents that make an individual or company thrive in the best and worst times.
It is important to note that too often organizations fall short in adopting a culture of engaging excellence because they either fail to acknowledge the role of excellence or they confuse engaging excellence with reaching a state of organizational nirvana where all operational and financial objectives must be perfectly met in order to meet certain bonus levels. VA’s leadership should be reminded that Engaging excellence is not a search for perfection. In fact, Voltaire, the French writer and philosopher said “le mieux est l’ennemi dubien” – the perfect is the enemy of
Carpenter, M., Bauer, T., Erodogan, B., & Short, J. (2013). Principles of management. (2nd ed.).
The first one is that you should identify the goal of your company so that you can do what is necessary to achieve that goal. The second one is that you should always keep record of the progress of your business so you know where you are at fault. The third stipulation is to always be a critical thinker so you are always one step ahead. The fourth would be to engage in team work because of the old adage, “two heads are better than one.” The fifth lesson is that you should never give up because your company can take a positive turn if you take the right
The criteria are designed to work in an integrated way to achieve a system of performance excellence. For example: Leadership; Strategic Planning; and Customer and Market Focus, link together to emphasize the importance of leaderships ' focus on strategy and customer satisfaction (Shields, 2013). The criteria are written as a series of questions that can help an organization to gain knowledge of itself.
(2014) is “the way in which leaders interact, make decisions, and influence others in the organization” (p 237). The culture needs to foster cooperation from all areas of an organization, while providing the ability for adaptation and growth. Not all organizations culture will be the same, there is not a correct one that can blanket all organizations to cozy success. (3) Talent Systems. Human capital drives all organizations, the right people need to be in the right jobs with the correct opportunities for growth and advancement. There must be a constant search for strategic thinkers and leaders able to step up with called upon. The authors mention “Talent Sustainability” (p. 248), there must be enough qualified employees ready to move up so the organization will not stall while searching for others to replace others due to attrition, or other opportunists. (4) Organizational Design, must take a number of variables into account while providing structure to an organization. Hughes et al. (2014) state “the design of the organization is a trade-off between options, each with advantages and disadvantages” (p 253). The correct design can help clear the hierarchy of an organization and the proper channels for
The Competing Values Framework is originated by Quinn and Rohrbaugh. It emphasizes the organizational problems and choices faced by managers. The framework is divided into various managerial roles corresponding situations, as well as specific organizational environments. For instance, the facilitator and mentor roles rely on cohesion and morale to bring about human resource development within the organization. While the innovator and broker roles rely on flexibility and readiness in order to receive the growth and resource needed to perform an effective organization. The director and producer roles are more applicable for planning and goal setting skills and will result in productivity and efficiency. The monitor and coordinator roles are intended to managing information and communicating. The framework can also be divided into two main roles. The first four mentioned above are the transformational roles, and the last four are the transactional roles (Belasen, 1996). The transformational roles are more aimed toward making changes and developments, while the transactional roles have strong emphasizes on managerial authorities. The key to becoming a master manager is to be a successful manager who is able to perform each role in order to cope with all difficulties being faced as a manager (Quinn, 1988). A successful manager is also someone who is perceived by others as performing all of the eight roles more frequent than a normal manager and recognizes each of its importance thoroughly (Denison, 1995). A study by Bono (2004) also shows that giving importance to any specific working environment, such as rational goal model, may lower the effectiveness of other areas. Denison and Spreitzer (1991) stated that when a manager does not gi...
The Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award is a tremendous tool that manufacturing companies can use to understand what their overall managerial goals are, and asses themselves based on the performance of their implantations (National Institute of Standards and Technology, 2015). Organizations decide what they wish to accomplish and how they are going to do it in their mission and vision statements, but the Baldrige criteria is used to determine how these goals were applied throughout the organization. According to, (National Institute of Standards and Technology, 2015), “The criteria provides a systems perspective. . . The individual components are essential, but how they relate to one another – how they link – defines the success of the organization” (p. 1). Each organization uses this criteria to make an assessment of itself based on three primary principles. The organization must define what is important to them, how they are planning to satisfy what is important
Every organization, whether it is an educational setting or a business setting, has the same basic principle. Each shapes and molds different ideas and ingredients to produce a good or service to deliver to external clients in the community or society. The success of the organization depends on the client satisfaction and the usefulness of what was delivered (Quality Management Plus, 30). Roger Kaufman’s Organizational Elements Model distinguishes between the different elements that make up an organization’s work.
6. Stick to the Knitting: This is about the company focusing on doing what it does best. 7. Simple Form, Lean Staff: This can be hard particularly in large
Peters, T. J. & Waterman, R. H. (1982). In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America’s Best-Run Companies. New York: Harper &
PRIMIS MNO 6202: Managing Organizations. 2007. The 'Secondary' of the ' Reprint of the book. McGraw-Hill Education, 2013.
Some critics argue that the above statement is not true because nowadays organization is easy to change. They build an organization with a flexible structure and system so they can easily change and beside they can also rewarded people to embrace change. However, the statement stated by Lawler, E.E and Worley, C.G is definitely true about organizational change because the way of changing organization require an examination of fit between the organization’s strategic intentions and its structure (Graetz et al. 2002 p.195). Management systems are design for achieving its goals and it is difficult when remaining goals but changing the management systems. Jay Galbraith (cited in Goodman, E. 2011, p.242), a world leader of organization and team development, also states: ‘Every organization is perfectly designed to get the results it is currently achieving’. Moreover human resources are the most im...
The manager should be able to select and know these factors. As organization is created systems by people, the internal factors are mainly the result of management decisions. Not all of the internal factors are completely controlled by the management. Organization is influenced by many environmental factors. In the new millennium we have to learn how to live in a market economy. And the most important condition for this is a highly skilled managers. Ability to identify and analyze the internal elements of the organization and external factors is the key to the success of the business. The main factors in the organization that require management attention are objectives, structure, tasks, technology and people. An organization can be seen as a means to achieve the objectives that allows people to perform collectively what they could not carry out individually. Goals are desired outcome, which aims to achieve a group working together. The main objective of most organizations is profit. Income is a key indicator of the organization. People are the basis of any organization. Without people there is no organization. They shape the culture of the organization and its internal climate. They determine what the organization is. Manager generates frames, establishes a system of relations between people and include them in the process of
Business Excellence can be defined as “excellence in strategies, business practices, and stakeholder-related performance results that have been validated by assessments based on specific models proven to support the challenging journey towards excellence”. (Ionică et al 2010)