You had IBM, Apple, Zenith, Commodore and Atari and others running on separate platforms, using different software, unable to communicate with each other and yet individually providing an enormous service to the user. Today, the surviving computer models are extremely compatible, communicating with each other through the standards developed for the Internet and the World Wide Web. These different technologies each have a role to play in business and society and work very well together, much the way ISO, Baldrige and Six Sigma are today. It's not by accident that business and all of society today are looking at the progress and plans for holistic quality. The media and the customer are devoting more attention to it.
More information is accessible for the customer to evaluate and compare.
More options are available, too. The need for this exploration corresponds with our annual conference. More than 3,000 business, education and health care professionals are expected to attend. Motorola Inc. Feigenbaum and Crosby will be keynote speakers. Each of these leaders would be quick to recognize, however, that the purpose of the meeting is not to reflect on the past, but to focus on the future.