And because we're in a world market, there's an ever-increasing pressure to do things with higher quality, lower cost, and less waste. It started in the 1970s, when businesses found themselves profoundly challenged by companies in Japan, Mexico, China, India, Thailand, and Taiwan. American companies had to reorganize production. Over the past 10 years, we've seen substantial increases in productivity. But the race is never over.
American companies acknowledge that they learned a lot from international competitors.
But no one I know is actually thinking that they finally have the best quality product they can make in the most efficient way. This need will go on forever. They have to create learning organizations - organizations capable of adapting to changes in the environment, capable of moving from one success to the next, rather than becoming rigidly bound to a particular technique or outlook . Many of the managers of the future will come from the ranks of technical professionals. Our goal is to help them rise to the task.