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Edited excerpt from John Macdonald’s latest book Calling a Halt to Mindless Change ‐ a Plea for Commonsense Management by Amacom. The article looks back at the “changeling children” of the quality revolution and opines that they were comparative failures. The origins of the term TQM and fallacies about BPR are explained. The overall theme is that improvement is better viewed as a revolutionary process than a revolutionary event. Beware gurus and prescriptive solutions.

States that many companies have been disappointed with the results of their drive for quality improvement. Outlines ten principal reasons for disappointment, all of which can be circumvented. Submits that the key to lasting success is in the effectiveness of the original assessment and the comprehensiveness of the plan to manage the change.

Retail and distribution is the most customer‐focused of all industries. Companies which continuously research the market are more likely to succeed. Discusses reasons for the continued success of Marks & Spencer and J. Sainsbury are discussed. Quality concepts must be rooted in an organization, including external factors, e.g. suppliers and distributors. Even the best companies, faced with the problems of growth, need to use the concepts of total quality management (TQM) to maintain their competitive advantage and ensure that their culture lives on with new employees.

Argues that successful implementation of TQM in service organizations requires an understanding of the intrinsic differences between them and manufacturing organizations. These differences make quality more difficult to achieve and measure – services are intangible, people‐oriented, cannot be stored or easily serviced, are consumed on delivery and their perceived quality depends largely on customer expectation. Suggests that the public sector has recently become a focus for the quality revolution and, to succeed, service organizations will have to implement and use the tools of TQM in their own way.

DSM Manufacturing has been around for 100 years. In that time, the company has grown considerably in size and is now a global enterprise. With the global expanse, DSM is now facing new challenges, leaving executives to determine what the next steps are in running an efficient supply chain, those that a network analysis will not necessarily address. This case illustrates DSM's process

Describes a quality improvement initiative at Glaxo Wellcome India ‐ the Glaxo Wellcome Excellence Process. Illustrates the programme in detail. Concludes with some observations on progress to date and the changes in the organization’s culture as a result.

Examines the NHS, its funding, service, change, etc. and the basic elements of its reform. Details management problems and how TQM can help, despite cynicism within the service. Puts forward an American’s view of the British health care service, before concluding with a USA example to prove that quality is important.

With the promise of more and more retailers trading up and the increasing proliferation of speciality shops, it seems that the designer may be just coming into his own. Interior Design International, held at Olympia in March, claimed record numbers of visitors to its exhibition — a claim which was endorsed by a number of exhibitors to whom RDM spoke. And the conference held alongside it, “Tomorrow's Interiors”, had its shops and stores' seminar well attended; among the delegates from design houses and product groups were names like Marks & Spencer, Macdonalds, John Lewis, Littlewoods, Maple and Cadbury‐Schweppes. Other exhibitions in the offing include Shopex, to be held at Olympia from 18–22 May. The publicists have forecast a bumper exhibition, and claim to have some 220 exhibitors lined up. That's 55 up from last year's showing, when RDM counted something in the region of 165 companies. Of last year's number, around 75 have dropped out this year — or if your prefer it the other way, 90 exhibitors have chosen to stay on. The fact that Shopex has been brought down to London's Olympia has led to speculation that this could be a good thing for visitors from home and abroad. Last year, it was said that Birmingham was simply too decentralised, especially for the foreign visitor, and that most of the good examples of design and shopfitting were in the London shops anyway. The exhibition has a range of participants from the fields of shopfitting, design, display, point of sale, security, lighting, business machines, merchandising and allied products. It is interesting to see how many exhibitors are in the field of computers, cash registers and EPOS: Anker Data Systems, Associated Business Machines, Cash and Security Equipment, Chubb Cash, Compucorp, Decimo, Electronic Cash Registers, Geller Business Equipment, Gunn Electronic Cash Registers, Hugin Cash Registers, MLM Computers, NCR, Norfrond, Norman Pendred Cellgrave, SI Design Studio, Sanyo Marubeni UK, Shilglade Retail Systems, TEC UK, Transaction Data Systems. It will also be interesting to see what the shopfitter and designer has to offer the retailer today, faced as he is with a shrinking market. The consumer's pocket is emptier than ever before, and the major multiples have already absorbed most of the growth possible from squeezing out the independent. That the element of design will also play an increasingly important part in retailing was also evident from the ICSC 5th Annual Conference, also held in London in March. In the seminar entitled “Shopping centre response to the need for a better quality of life”, we heard how the consumer has become more discerning and demanding, and how we have to give her a more enjoyable, attractive and socially useful shopping centre; one that is well‐designed, convenient and inclusive of good services, eating areas and facilities like nurseries and libraries. From the same conference came a very interesting talk by Rodney Fitch of Fitch & Company, the design consultants, on the subject of “Graphics, signs and mall furniture.” This speech is reported below; we also present a version of the paper on design by David Calcott of John Michael Design Consultants, presented at the “Tomorrow's Interiors” conference.

Examines the process of implementing a TQM programme and its management. Suggests that although managers recognize a need for change they do not appreciate the amount of change needed in their own behaviour and actions. Proposes that future management philosophy should be based on the bonding between management and workers. Goes on to investigate the importance of this, concluding that management should recognize that their workers are their major and most important resource.