Cultured Corporate Winners

How clear goals—and some office heroes—can bring success

Japanese management techniques will not reverse America's economic decline. Neither will obsessive number crunching or strategic planning. O.K., so what will? Strong corporate cultures, that's what. Such is the blunt message of Corporate Cultures (Addison-Wesley; 242 pages; $14.95), a lively dissection of American business winners written by Terrence E. Deal of the Harvard Graduate School of Education and Allan A. Kennedy, a Boston-based consultant. Executives, say Deal and Kennedy, must recognize that "a strong culture has almost always been the driving force behind continuing success...