In Search of Excellence has long been a must-have for the boardroom, business school and bedside table, and continues to influence the thinking of leaders and managers across the globe today.

Based on a study of forty-three of America's best-run companies from a range of sectors - consumer goods, technology, services - the book identifies eight common 'attributes of excellence' that made these organisations successful. Though many of the profiled companies have since lost their edge (or disappeared completely), these eight management principles, each highlighted in a chapter in the book, have shown themselves to be timeless.

These simple business truths, so eloquently encapsulated by Peters and Waterman, are proof that the fundamentals of management - a focus on people, customers and value, entrepreneurship and excellence - ring as true today as they ever did.

In Search of Excellence is a seminal business book, worthy of a place on the bookshelves of anyone who wants to understand how effective management works in practice.