mployees and treated them like adults. The excellent companies allowed for some chaos in return for quick action and regular experimentation. They simply persisted.Over-commitment on reliability by Caterpillar (forty-eight hour parts service anywhere in the world or Cat pays) or Maytag (ten years trouble-free operation) makes no sense. Who in his right mind would establish MBWA (management by walking around), as HP does? Those excellent companies would have a hard time convincing skeptics that they had solid management practices.The authors finally realized that they did not have to look at Japan to find the answer to corporate problems. Excellent companies here at home have been doing it right for years, with little fanfare. The psychologist Ernest Becker explains that man needs at the same time to be a member of a winning team and a star in his own right. The excellent companies have found ways to meet both needs.Excellent companies are learning organizations, and they create their own internal marketplace. When IBM had a 90% market share, they did it by creating the specter of competitors. A number of the companies in the book would ensure that departments would compete against each other on products.Mavericks in a company usually make the big leaps. Studies have demonstrated that the industry leader never does.Excellent companies get results because their organizations are fluid. These companies often insist on informality, and keeping in constant informal contact, such as MBWA (management by walking around).Superb companies reinforced degrees of winning rather than degrees of losing. For example, IBM sets goals so that 70-80% of its salespeople meets quotas. A competitor works so that only 40% of the sales force can meet its quota. Thus, about 60% of the salesmen feel like losers. Rate someone a loser and they'll think and act like one. The excellent companies' strategies are not only designed to produce winners, but to celebrate ...
