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American Management: Diagnosing the Unwilling Patient
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10015 |
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Section : |
BOOK WORLD
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| Issue
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4 / 1986 |
3,115 Words |
| Author
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Tom Peters
Tom Peters is coauthor with Nancy Austin of A Passion for
Excellence and heads several companies providing management-
development products and services. |
In Search of Excellence is typical of revolutionary products such as the Apple II computer. It is a good enough product, blessed with perfect timing. The history of ideas makes this clear. The bellwether books or products that create change are rarely novel. Rather, they are the culmination of often lengthy periods of fermenting thought. They come along when readiness for acceptance is high, and they are picked up by many.
This was true, for instance, of Darwin's Origin of the Species. The evolutionary idea had been in the air for well over a hundred years. But in 1859, for a host of political and social reasons, the world was ready to hear it. Moreover, Darwin's description was superb and understandable. In an entirely different and more recent arena, consider the success of the DC-3 airplane, often called a "technological guidepost." There was virtually nothing new in the DC-3, yet it was the most influential aircraft for decades. It culminated many advances, included them in its design, and became a bellwether from whence all other designs started.
Timing was indeed exceptional for In Search of Excellence. Its publication precisely coincided with then - Secretary of Treasury Don Regan's announcement of 10 percent unemployment, a real and symbolic act of epic proportion for the unsullied post-World War II American economy. Likewise, the book came out one year, practically to the day, after the publication of two of the most influential texts about Japanese management, Theory Z and The Art of Japanese Management. Our research had been completed by the time those two books came out, and we were devastated that their efforts hit the bookshelves first. Were we ever wrong! In the ensuing twelve months, a major backlash developed.
... (1997 of 19203 Characters)
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