In search of excellence

SUMMARY: “IN SEARCH OF EXCELLENCE”.
CHAPTER 1.
The first chapter addresses the issue of change, and the organization’s typically vain attempt to effectively change its business process.  According to the authors, the main problem that businesses face is breaking out of their old habits. The authors suggest that this problem stems from more than just structure or strategy – it is something thatis fundamentally ingrained into American business philosophy in general, and thus goes much deeper than any single company strategy.   
The authors challenge the classic business assumption, otherwise known as the “rationalist” business model.  In the crosshairs of the authors is the theory that “structure follows strategy” by Alfred Chandler, and the once monolithic but widely challenged“bureaucratic form of organization” as presented by Max Weber.  The authors interviewed top management of successful business organizations along with top thinkers in the academic community, and were able to establish a congruency of thought with regard some of the business theories and the actions of successful managers.  What they found seems to back the views of the “non-rationalist” primarily that thetheory of personal attention trumps working conditions with regard to employee output and the theory that the more flexible and autonomous business model will be better positioned to adapt to changing market conditions.  
The authors look beyond the “structural” approach to business organization and focus more on the “soft factors” that must also be addressed.  According to them, excellence canbe summed up in the phrase “continuously innovative big companies.”  Innovation is described not only as an ability to create new things, but also as the ability to continually adapt to changing conditions while maximizing the organization’s bottom line.  The authors seem to want to erase the notion that innovation is purely proactive, and reinforce the point that in many cases innovation is morereactive to changing conditions (particularly with reference to the business world).  In this sense innovation is not only able to shape new conditions, but it is also able respond to changing conditions.  
Key to this innovation is the ability for the organization to keep its business model as simple as possible.  The key to true innovation, as argued by the authors, is not designing a complexbusiness structure, but in finding ways to break the complexity of the structure into easy and small problems.  The key is to simplify the process.  The book refers to it as being “brilliant at the basics.”  This is a method of thought that rejects the notion of the “complex” business structure as embodied by the bureaucracy and matrix models, which is typically represented by multi-layeredorganizational units, committees, and other bureaucratic stumbling blocks that inhibit the organization’s ability to respond to changing conditions rather than empowering the organization to respond to the environmental (external, internal) changes. 
Another common factor that the successful companies had in common was their willingness to give their employees autonomy in their decision making process.Rather than focusing on large committees, groups were kept small, and each group focused on a particular section or problem of the organization.  These companies have many projects going on at time and are not afraid to explore and innovate.  

CHAPTER 2.
In the second chapter, the authors expound more on the rational model, focusing specifically on the over-analytical business approach that istrumpeted by many in the educational establishment and within certain top levels of the business communities.  They speak in not so flattering terms of top executives in their “analytical ivory towers.”  The picture is one of a management that is detached from the business process and held hostage by their focus on analytics.
 The authors argue that quantitative methods have their place in...