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- Path: sparky!uunet!charon.amdahl.com!amdahl!jsp
- From: jsp@uts.amdahl.com (James Preston)
- Newsgroups: misc.consumers
- Subject: Re: The Baldridge award (was "AT&T Universal Card (tm? by AT&T)")
- Keywords: AT&T UNIVERSAL CREDIT CARD VISA
- Message-ID: <45YE03kPb8uL00@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com>
- Date: 5 Nov 92 19:19:49 GMT
- References: <9a7q03Nob4P.00@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com> <edBi036nb71i00@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com> <1992Nov4.175925.9830@cbnewsi.cb.att.com>
- Reply-To: jsp@pls.amdahl.com
- Distribution: usa
- Organization: Amdahl Corporation, Sunnyvale CA
- Lines: 55
-
- gadfly@cbnewsi.cb.att.com (Gadfly) writes:
-
- }> U.S. companies
- }> are _already_ in a competition with the rest of the world. Why
- }> hasn't that been sufficient to spur them on to higher levels of
- }> quality?
-
- }Because they didn't understand the concept. Because American
- }management's fixation with quarterly profits destroys any
- }consistent effort for the long term. Because until recently
- }American industry dominated the world and never had to deal
- }with serious competition, and so its organizational principles
- }are the very antithesis of what is needed for quality. The
- }Baldrige was designed to help fix those things, or at least
- }to clearly point out the problems and means to overcome them.
-
- I hope you didn't intend it this way, but the above sure sounds like
- an apologist for American companies.
-
- }> Now, mind you, I'm not really arguing with results; if
- }> the Baldridge has contributed to improved quality of U.S.
- }> companies, then it's clearly a good thing. It's also a very sad
- }> commentary on the short-sighted mindset of those who run U.S.
- }> companies that such an award was thought necessary.
-
- }Both winners and losers will tell you that using the Baldrige has
- }helped them. As for the mindset, it was a far-sighted one
- }which produced the exam, a vision of something like Japan's
- }Deming Prize (the first of which was awarded in 1951!), which could
- }help guide quality improvement for the long haul. It came out of
- }Congress, btw, not industry. And it (or something with a similar
- }purpose) *is* necessary to guide the rebuilding of our ruined economy.
- }If not, well, how would *you* do it?
-
- I knew that the award came out of Congress. I was remarking on how
- sad it is that U.S. businesses are so short-sighted that our government
- felt it necessary to create this award in order to give companies a REASON
- to improve their quality; it's sad that competition with the rest of the
- world STILL isn't sufficient reason for those who run our companies to
- get off their fat butts and start competing. How would I do it? I have
- answered that already: I would not have created this incentive in terms
- of a prize that companies can choose to "go for". The reward for improving
- quality is more customers, or better satisfied customers, or lower costs
- or better products. That is the message that I would send out. I would
- have the Baldridge people going out looking for quality, and the first
- place I'd have them start is Japan. You know the story of the mule that
- you have to hit on the head with a two-by-four to get its attention before
- it will listen to you? Well, I think that U.S. companies still aren't
- really paying attention. Someone needs to really rub their noses in the
- fact that companies in other countries are BETTER. As long as we still
- blindly hold on to this romantic notion that American business is the
- best, nothing will change.
-
- --James Preston
-
-