DURING my graduate studies in business and public administration, management theories were influenced a lot by a book, 'In Search of Excellence,' written by Tom Peters and Robert Waterman Jr., and published in 1982. The authors, consultants at McKinsey and Co., expounded on eight principles that distinguished successful companies. These became the blueprint for corporate success in the 1980s and beyond.

The eight principles consisted of the following: a bias for action, staying close to the customer, fostering entrepreneurship, valuing people, being driven by core values, sticking to core businesses, maintaining simple organizational structures and balancing centralized control with decentralized autonomy. The business landscape may have transformed dramatically, but these concepts have enduring relevance.