The 5 Pillars of Tqm: How to Make Total Quality Management Work for You
Author: Bill Creech
List Price: $20.00
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ISBN: 0452271029
Publisher: Plume (December, 1995)
Sales Rank: 28,872
Average Customer Rating: 4.11 out of 5
Customer Reviews
Rating: 1 out of 5
Don't know whether to laugh or cry - what a crock
As one of America's millions of cube-dwellers, working for clueless management while being entertained by a regular parade of management fads, this title singled itself out with both it's pretentiousness and disconnection from reality. Evoking Lawrence's "Seven Pillars of Wisdom" in the service of better corporate management isn't just obnoxious and insulting, its indicative of the macho-warrior-wannabe managerial style more common in the 90s than it is these days. But it also has the dead-woodchuck-under-the-porch stench of a fad of years gone by, the (in)famous "Five Keys to Self-Renewal", which I suffered under the yoke and lash of during my earlier days in corporate employ. And to see how well THAT worked, it was soon dumped for Deming, who in turn was dumped for......wait for it......TQMS. And how well did THAT work? After flogging the groundlings from St. Louis to Long Beach (hmmmmm, what company could I be referring to?), guess what? (No, not just the hoary joke about "Time to Quit and Move to Seattle".) The company lost two major program competitions, lost it's largest single (and far-reaching) program, screwed up near-fatally on several other programs (with hideous and federally-investigated cost and schedule overruns), eventually went belly-up and was purchased for a song by our largest competitior. General Creech beats his chest and makes loud noises, but only the naive (or the blinkered true believer) will join the chorus. This flavor-of-the-month in management fads has, as they ALL have been and WILL be, been superceded by "lean". Oh, well, the consultants have to earn a living no, right?
Rating: 5 out of 5
The Power of Empowerment
Bill Creech's The Five Pillars of TQM, first published in 1994 and since reprinted a dozen times and in eight languages, lays out an uncommonly clear-headed approach toward results-oriented management. Creech, a former Air Force four-star general and now valued industry consultant, has served on ten corporate boards of directors and worked with five national speaking bureaus. His management philosophy, while mindful that most organizations are not democracies, is essentially a variation on the golden rule embodying basic decency toward others as a core unifying theme. Best summarized as empowerment with accountability, it is rooted in a recognition that loyalty is a two-way street and that an organization can only be as successful as those at the bottom are willing to make it. Among the many insights to be gleaned from this informed and empathetic book are the virtues of managing by walking around rather than by hunkering down in a mahogany-row fortress, unburdening those who want to get things done by lifting the overlay of rules and kibitzers from their backs, and recognizing that what ultimately determines organizational success is what goes on at the front, not on mahogany row. These principles, which Creech first pioneered during his tenure as commander of the Air Force's Tactical Air Command from 1978 to 1984, are now being reapplied by the current Air Force chief, who recently included Five Pillars on his recommended reading list for all Air Force officers. Yet Creech's principles of TQM (for "total quality management"--a term and construct he invented) transcend service applicability and have been amply proven in the corporate world as well. His idea of how a top-flight organization should be run resonates implicitly with how any responsible and motivated worker would like to be treated by his superiors. Such notions as the indispensability of mutual trust and respect; the power of inclusion rather than exclusion; the vast difference in effectiveness between decreeing and persuading; and the central role of pride as a motivator are part and parcel of Creech's enlightened approach to effective leadership. Five Pillars spells out these principles and more in rich detail, offering must-read insights for those at all levels who deal with people as resources.
Rating: 5 out of 5
This book and the "Quality Pioneers."
One of the unique qualities of this "Five Pillars" book is that it covers in detail the contributions of all the early "quality pioneers"--including Juran, Deming, Feigenbaum, and Crosby. It also covers the works of others who have contributed to our knowledge on "management" matters writ large--not just the far more narrowly focused "quality control" literature. For example, the works of Drucker, Iacocca, and the like are also covered and blended with those of the quality pioneers. The "Five Pillars" praises Deming for what he contributed to the quality movement, but also places his contributions in their needed perspective for those seeking real and not superficial results. Accordingly, it is not suprising that one Balaji S. Reddi from Pune, Maharashtra, India would not like the book. It will be noted that Balaji S. Reddie is an electrical engineer who specializes in teaching the "Deming Way." In fact his e-mail address places him at "DemingIndia.org." Within the pages of the "Five Pillars of TQM" the prediction is made that the book will draw flak from those who have turned Deming into "The Man Who Discovered Quality" and the "patron saint" of quality management. It took a long time for the flak to arrive, and then all the way from India! In fact, a deciple of Walter Shewhart of the Bell Laboratories along with Joseph Juran, W. Edwards Deming made contributions of the "SPC" and "SQC" variety of "QM" but provided false and irrelevant guidance on most of the broader management issues. "TQM"--a term invented by General Bill Creech--is likened as "Total" because its reach is far broader than a set of quality control tools--and the "Five Pillars" book says that in an unambiguous fashion. ("Process" being but one of the five pillars upon which success is built.) What is taught at the DemingIndia organization is unknown to this reviwer, but according to Balaji S. Reddie's reaction it is certainly not the broad based approach to "quality management" that the Bill Creech book is all about. Read it and verify that for yourself. Similar Products
The Deming Management Method
Putting Total Quality Management to Work: What Tqm Means, How to Use It & How to Sustain It over the Long Run
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