In Search of Excellence

Forty-three of the best-run companies in the United States, drawn from a range of industries, are the basis of Tom Peters and Robert H. Waterman's study of management. Both authors were consultants in McKinsey's San Francisco office, where Peters worked on organizational effectiveness before Waterman joined him, and the findings were distilled into eight themes that became the book's chapters. They include a bias for action, closeness to the customer, productivity through people, lean staffing and sticking to the knitting. At a time when American business was studying Japanese methods, the authors looked at home instead. Sales reached three million copies in the four years after its 1982 release.

Caithus CEO Aidan Connolly read it on vacation at 16 and said it convinced him that management, leadership and strategy were his passion, steering him away from a planned engineering career. Navy SEAL and Perfect Fitness CEO Alden Mills said it focused his daydreaming mind on what it takes to build great companies.