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2
Patterns of Excellence
2.1 IN SEARCH OF EXCELLENCE*
Tom Peters catapulted to international fame when he coauthored, along with Robert Waterman, In
Search of Excellence: Lessons from America’s Best-Run Companies (Peters and Waterman, 1982),
which is the best-selling management book of all time. It is difcult to overestimate the impact this
book has had. At the time when Western economies were on the rocks and Japanese companies
appeared to be sweeping all before them, In Search of Excellence seemed to offer a way, perhaps
the only way, for Western companies to regain their competitiveness.
2.1.1 Bias for aCTion
One of the main identiable att ...