Excellence, Planning, and Performance

In an effort to empirically test three propositions linking excellence, planning, and performance, 41 of Peters and Waterman's [Peters, T., R. Waterman. 1982. In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America's Best Run Companies. Harper and Row, New York.] excellent companies were compared with two benchmark samples—matched according to size and industry grouping—of North American companies. Our results indicate that excellence and performance are not synonymous, and that the planning processes of excellent firms are generally not significantly different from those of the two benchmark samples. In addition, by analyzing four “traits” of excellence, we show that the popular traits of excellence are not the exclusive preserve of the so-called excellent companies.