Creative Conflict

 

PREFACE

Frank Mobus’s Fundamental Insight

Some thirty years ago, a young Frank Mobus found himself on a panel with the venerable W. Edwards Deming, the management guru who inspired the post–World War II Japanese economic miracle. Deming transformed modern industry by solving a riddle: How does a company cut costs without compromising quality? The answer—the brainstorm that vaulted Toyota and Honda past GM and Ford—was to collaborate with the firm’s Tier 1 suppliers, to work together to improve design, tooling, engineering, and so on down the line.

Deming frowned on mechanically awarding contracts to the lowest bidder. As he saw it, the art of procurement was to ferret out efficiencies and minimize total cost. His ideal was a quasi-partnership ...