Hidden Value: How Great Companies Achieve Extraordinary Results with Ordinary People by Charles A. O'Reilly III and Jeffrey Pfeffer

Charles O'Reilly and Jeffrey Pfeffer are both professors at Stanford University's business school. The basic argument of Hidden Value is that great (leading, profitable) organizations are built not by attracting the most talented (e.g., top ten per cent) people but by creating an organization that knows how to unleash the value of "ordinary" people. The argument is made by devoting eight of the ten chapters in the book to extended case histories of Southwest Airlines, Cisco Systems, AES, Men's Wearhouse and other companies. Cypress Semiconductor is included among the eight companies as an example of a company that doesn't quite yet get the point.