The struggle of a fictional company, Punctuation, Inc., to improve quality and increase competitiveness by using time-saving techniques makes for an entertaining lesson for all businesspeople. By the author of I Know It When I See It.

It's About Time: A Fable About the Next Dimension of Quality

Business & Money

Guaspari, John

Management & Leadership

Amacom Books

When a rival firm threatens to steal away customers from Punctuation, Inc., the Boss is determined to find a way to improve product quality

I Know It When I See It: A Modern Fable About Quality

Examines the connection between quality and consumer satisfaction, looks at Japanese quality control, and tells how to integrate company quality programs

Customer Connection: Quality for the Rest of Us

In a fable about Punctuation Inc., the Boss and his Right-Hand Man and Left-Hand Man find out that to be successful quality must be a goal throughout the organization

Theory Why: In Which the Boss Solves the Riddle of Quality

The secret to the success of I Know It When I See It lies in its stylish delivery of a serious theme. A succinct and intriguing business fable, it tells the story of "Punctuation, Inc." and provides a simple message about quality -- that it's the customer who defines it. The story shows how businesspeople who pay close attention to what kind of quality their customers want, will also find just what their company wants -- success and big profits. This new paperback edition features the delightful illustrations that helped make the German translation a huge hit.

AMACOM

Switched-On Quality breaks new ground in providing practical, hands-on assistance in dealing with one of the biggest challenges (and opportunities) of all: How to get more people to bring more of their discretionary effort to the task at hand—ensuring that customers will decide to choose your products and services rather than the other guys'.  The book's premise is simple and straightforward: If what you're after is employee buy-in, then you've got some intra-organizational selling and marketing to do. The book offers practical, proven, and readily applicable guidance on how to position quality (or TQM or Six Sigma) so that people will not only be well informed about the discipline, but also aligned and energized by the prospect of its application.

Switched-On Quality

Economics

Paton Pr

Through this ingenious, entertaining murder mystery format, The Value Effect helps readers solve a real-world business mystery: why haven't our Next Big Thing efforts worked out as well as we had hoped they would? Renowned customer value and quality guru John Guaspari provides an insightful analysis of why a variety of organizational change initiatives often fall short-what he calls Next Big Things-and offers an effective, dynamic alternative: the Value Effect. In presenting "The Evidence" of the case, Guaspari shows how the Value Effect can in fact provide the organizational alignment and tap into the energy needed to create and sustain organizational change. The Value Effect, he reveals, does not replace the other change methods, but instead creates the underlying context on which any change effort must be founded. Guaspari explains what value really is and provides basic steps for applying the Value Effect. He clearly states the grounding tenets to which a company must fervently adhere to sustain its transformational power, including making customer value the primary focus of the organization, ensuring that everyone knows what is of value to customers, and engaging everyone in delivering value to the customer. In this book, Guaspari shows that the full power of the Value Effect is only unleashed when individuals realize that it is not a Next Big Thing after all. Rather, its power comes from its ability to provide a stable and enduring context to help people and their organizations better understand and deal with change.

The Value Effect: A Murder Mystery about the Compulsive Pursuit of 'The Next Big Thing'

Business Culture

Berrett-Koehler Publishers

Ask leaders what their biggest challenge is, and they're likely to say: "It's the people part of the job . . . the soft stuff . . . the so-called intangibles." Otherwise Engaged shines a bright light on the cause of this challenge: a fundamental misunderstanding of the true nature of intangibles, like engagement, empowerment, respect. The book focuses on the too-often overlooked first step in any such effort: How to stop doing the things that cause people to dis-engage. Once you gain a better, deeper understanding of the true nature of the intangibles, you'll discover that you already know what to do in order to be more effective in this domain. Through a story told in a light, humorous style, the author helps you discover what the problem is. You'll learn why good faith efforts to promulgate values throughout an organization can be ineffectual and, in some cases, even damaging. In the process, you'll develop a felt need to challenge the assumptions under which you've been working and to become more open to the possibility of considering a different way.

Otherwise Engaged: How Leaders Can Get A Firmer Grip on Employee Engagement and Other Key Intangibles

Maven House

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Guaspari, John. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Guaspari, John

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Guaspari, John. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

It's About Time: A Fable About the Next Dimension of Quality

I Know It When I See It: A Modern Fable About Quality

Customer Connection: Quality for the Rest of Us

Theory Why: In Which the Boss Solves the Riddle of Quality

I Know It When I See It: A Modern Fable About Quality

Customer Connection: Quality for the Rest of Us

I Know It When I See It: A Modern Fable About Quality

Switched-On Quality

The Value Effect: A Murder Mystery about the Compulsive Pursuit of 'The Next Big Thing'

Otherwise Engaged: How Leaders Can Get A Firmer Grip on Employee Engagement and Other Key Intangibles