Future Think: How to Think Clearly in a Time of Change

Chapter 8. Integrity Begets Quality

During the 1980s, and into the early 1990s, Total Quality Management (TQM) was the Pet Rock or hula hoop of the business world. Most big companies—and nonbusinesses as well—proclaimed fervent belief in Quality. Multitudes of books on the subject were rapidly produced and made lots of money for their authors. New and established consultants benefited from the willingness to spend whatever it took to get to the pinnacle of the Everest of quality. Award programs, such as the Malcolm Baldrige Award, established by the U.S. Congress in 1987, bestowed accolades on organizations that epitomized success in achieving quality. Today, TQM lives on in such programs as Six Sigma, which gained some popularity when it was ...