Content area
Full Text
The TQM Journal 25th anniversary special issue
Edited by Dr Alexander Douglas
1. Introduction
"Change alone is unchanging and nothing endures but Change" - Heraclitus, Greek Philosopher.
The author has personally managed the change since his childhood to the current time. He lost both parents by the time he was six years old. Family members provided excellent support and the author turned to education for his survival and growth. After finishing high school in his native place, he traveled 500 miles to Mumbai for post-secondary education for two years. Then he traveled 800 miles to enter the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Banaras Hindu University (BHU) in Varanasi, India to study chemical engineering. At the conclusion of his undergraduate work, he traveled 8,000 miles to join the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), Chicago in the USA for his graduate studies. After completing his graduate studies, he worked in chemical field for seven years. During the recession in the USA, he started his MBA studies at Keller Graduate School of Management at the DeVry University in Chicago, USA. Then he joined AT&T Bell Laboratories in Holmdel, New Jersey and transitioned from chemical engineering to telecommunication field. During his early years at AT&T Bell Labs he worked on Quality Management project which again changed his career focus to quality management field. The author also taught quality management and operations management courses at various business schools for over two decades. In year 2000, he started his own quality management global consulting practice.
What follows in this paper is a systematic methodology to achieve business excellence through sustainable change management practices.
2. Business excellence
In 1987, by the Act of US Congress, the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award was established to spur productivity enhancements for the US companies by recognizing best-in-class organizations. In the last few years, the name of this award was changed to [1] Baldrige Performance Excellence Award Program (USNIST, 2013-2014). As shown in Figure 1 [Figure omitted. See Article Image.], the business excellence is achieved by addressing seven categories of the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program. Each of these categories requires thorough assessment of current processes and systems to identify strengths and areas for improvement. The change management becomes crucial when implementing areas for improvement to achieve...