Perspectives The garbage can life cycle model of quality management

Bje Larsen
The author Bje Larsen is at the Center of Business Development and Management Technology, Copenhagen Business School, Copenhagen, Denmark. Keywords Quality management, Management theory, Model, Strategy Abstract The rapid fashion swings in popular management theory puzzle and alarm many observers and users of management theory. New concepts arrive, experience a sudden popularity, then flatten out and are soon forgotten or appear old-fashioned. This article presents a model of such short time management theory fashion swings: The garbage can life cycle model. The model is based on James March's garbage can model of decision making combined with a life cycle model. The model describes how actors, problems and methods typically are different at four stages in the life cycle of a concept. The model is illustrated with data from quality management. The model does not pass judgement on the inherent qualities of quality management or the need for quality in the economy but seeks to explain what typically happens over time. The article concludes with a short discussion from the perspective of the model of the strategies that the quality movement may use at the present stage: A, retracting into full specialization; B, widening and attaching new fashionable themes to quality management; and C, focusing on its competitive advantages. Strategy C is recommended. Electronic access The research register for this journal is available at http://www.mcbup.com/research_registers The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at http://www.emerald-library.com/ft

1. Introduction
Traditional theories of the production of management theory are best at explaining developments in the long term, either from external factors such as management's needs for legitimacy (Bendix, 1956) and needs for solving problems specific to different parts of the economic cycle (Abrahamson, 1997), or from internal developments in the production system for management ideas (Furusten, 1996). In this article I present a model of the shortterm volatility of management concepts. The model is based on two metaphors. The first metaphor is James March's garbage can model of organizational choice (Cohen et al., 1972). The garbage can itself in the original use denotes an event that triggers decisionmaking activity. A meeting, a strategy seminar, a jobholder is leaving and so on. When such an event occurs a garbage can is seen as being placed on the stage. Other events other garbage cans might already be there and be competing for attention from the participants. What happens to the cans on the stage depend in the model on four independent streams: (1) A stream of concerns or problems. (2) A stream of solutions or methods. (3) A stream of participants or actors more or less ready to be active in the decision making matter. (4) A stream of choice opportunities i.e. cans. The interaction between these streams determines the outcomes. Possible outcomes are: . resolution (problems and solutions are matched); . oversight (an issue is ``decided'' or passed over with few problems, methods, and participants in the can); and . flight (a can is overfilled with actors, problems, and methods which block it, which in turn induces actors, problems, and methods to leave for other cans). In the present article I use the garbage can as a metaphor for broad concepts in management theory with an attractive label. The garbage can metaphor is supplemented in this article by a second metaphor the life cycle metaphor (Adizes, 1979). The life cycle 95

The TQM Magazine Volume 13 . Number 2 . 2001 . pp. 95104 # MCB University Press . ISSN 0954-478X

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The TQM Magazine Volume 13 . Number 2 . 2001 . 95104

metaphor is relevant when trying to understand processes where the time element is important, for instance in the form of systematic differences between old and new cans. This attention to time is basic to studies of innovation and fashion. For reasons of simplicity, the phases analyzed are cut down to four: (1) child; (2) growing-up; (3) maturity; and (4) old age. Using other words with other connotations, the four stages can also be termed: . pioneer; . getting organized; . institutionalized; and . specialized. The full model depicting these four stages combined with the garbage can metaphor is shown in Figure 1. It is not assumed that all cans necessarily go through all four phases. Some die in the early phases or do not get started as cans. The strategic problem of a can is to navigate between two dangers: (1) The danger of remaining or becoming empty which is identical to death (``oversight''). (2) The danger of becoming overfilled; this blocks ``resolution'', i.e. any serious work
Figure 1 Garbage can life cycle mdoel

and induces ``flight'' leading, if it is uncontrolled, again to death. From this is derived some basic hypotheses regarding cans' behavior in the different phases. (1) New cans in the child phase only need to care about the danger of remaining empty. They need to mobilize actors, problems, and methods. (2) In the growing-up phase a process of flight will set in, due to attraction of newer cans and possibly induced by an overfilled condition. The can must also be attractive to some of the problems, methods, and participants that are fleeing older cans. (3) In the maturity phase there will be a near balance between the in-going and outgoing streams of actors, problems, and methods. The level of garbage and the character of garbage will be such that this is the point in the life cycle where there is the greatest chance of constructive work with the label. (4) In the old age phase a further reduction in the level of garbage takes place. What remain are the most specialized and least mobile actors, problems, and methods. In the following section of the article I discuss the four phases of the model and relate them to the rise (and beginning fall) of quality management (QM) in the West in the 1980s

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and 1990s. The focus is on the UK, Scandinavia and the USA that has experienced a surprisingly parallel development. The intent of the article is explorative with the aim of developing the model for further empirical study. The conclusions of the case study are formulated in detailed hypotheses in each section that supplement the basic hypotheses formulated above. In the concluding section of this article I discuss the challenges that the quality movement is facing, seen from the perspective of the model and how they might be overcome.

2. Child (pioneer) 1985-1989

The general hypothesis for the child stage (H1) points to the need to mobilize problems, methods, and participants to the new can. (The years indicated above refer to the Danish scene and have a degree of arbitariness, but they illustrate the argument.) The first step in this is a convincing cry for attention in order to attract actors, problems, and methods. Often this is done with a convincing label and a best-selling book written in the USA. Corporate culture, business process re-engineering (BPR), organizational learning, and the balanced scorecard are examples of such labels launched in very popular books (Peters and Waterman, 1982; Hammer and Champy, 1993; Senge, 1990; Kaplan and Norton, 1996). The books usually point to what is at the time defined as very pressing problems and argues based on vivid cases that these problems can be solved using the package of methods presented in the book. QM does not fully conform to this. It has a history going back to at least the Second World War (Dahlgaard, 2000). A small can containing quality technicians had existed in Europe and the USA since the Second World War. The American Society for Quality was founded in 1946 (having at that time ``Control'' added to its present name) inspired by the experience with quality control during the Second World War. The European Organization for Quality was founded ten years later. But the can was unnoticed by the larger public and by management theory of the sort produced in management consulting firms and business schools. It was only in the middle of the 97

1980s that something happened that changed this. The surge in popularity was also in this case connected to several influential books Crosby's Quality is Free (1979), Deming's Out of the Crisis (1986) and Juran's Leadership for Quality (1989) and to the publication of the ISO 9000 series in 1987. But these books in themselves did perhaps not create the necessary attention. The attention was also aroused by the description of the ``Japanese threat'' and the description of a supposedly alternative Japanese model of management and quality. Books like Ouchi's How American Business Can Meet the Japanese Challenge (1981), Pascale and Athos' The Art of Japanese Management (1981) and a multitude of articles referring to Japan around 1980 (Abrahamson and Fairchild, 1999 p. 727) were setting the scene in the USA. H1.1: Cans might exist before they are ``born'': they might be living discretely under another name. H1.2: A new can starts its life in the child phase with a package consisting of an attractive name, a pressing problem or threat and some methods to solve it. Often this package is presented in a book. The actors In the original garbage can model, actors (as well as problems and methods) are implicitly assumed to be fully and uniformly mobile (even if there might be limits regarding access to cans). This seems to be an unrealistic assumption especially regarding innovation and fashion processes where it is normal to find that only some actors (and by extension problems, and methods) are attracted to the new. Actors with a good placement and considerable investment in more established cans must be expected not to be attracted. Experts in other subjects, most researchers, ``normal managers'' will, following this, not be available for QM at this stage. But there are groups that will be open to the new concepts. A first group is what Abrahamsson (1991) calls the ``fashion setters''. Some of these are ``gurus'' (Grint, 1997), i.e. persons, perhaps the book authors themselves, with a charismatic personality who can sell these new concepts. Some of them are making a living from being mobile and ``in on'' the new: business journalists,

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management consultants, and some professors at academic institutions. A second group consists of more ``real consumers''. As with clothes, it can be expected that younger groups with status needs in this case, for instance, young professionals just out of business schools often employed in staff and consulting functions will be responsive to the new. But some top managers are usually also responsive in this phase. They might be looking for solutions to pressing problems. Or be responding to norms requiring them to be progressive (Abrahamson, 1991) or defending their status by leaving the previous management fashion that has been adopted by too many. With this group of actors, it is not surprising that new concepts are presented, not in scholarly journals or academic textbooks, but in newspapers, in magazines, in interviews, in book reviews and in conferences aimed at top management. In Denmark, QM took off from its technical baseline in 1987-1988. These years saw the first publications from non-technicians on QM. The authors were management consultants not belonging to the large consultancy companies (Larsen, 1987; Lund et al., 1987). The first publication from a person at a business school came from a professor of economic auditing who collaborated with an engineer who had specialized in quality control (Dahlgaard and Skyum, 1988). H1.3: In the child phase actors are fashion setters and a minority of especially responsive and unattached users. Problems Which problems are entering the young can? The paradigmatic book that perhaps started the can brought some problems in. What further problems will enter depends on the interaction with already established cans. It can be assumed that problems not ``living well'' in the other cans are inclined to leave. In the older cans, more wide-ranging problems are normally not fitting in well with the pragmatic and technical atmosphere that typically develops over time. New cans are open to such broad problems not feeling at home in other cans. The new can also needs ``big problems'' to legitimate its existence. QM was thus launched in the USA as an answer to the threat that Japan had become in the 1980s. 98

In the UK, QM was connected to a similar agenda. The British car industry had nearly been wiped out in the 1980s by Japanese and continental competition because of widespread quality problems. In general, UK industry was seen as the ``sick man of Europe''. With Margaret Thatcher as Prime Minister, the agenda was survival. QM was defined as an important part of this. In Scandinavia, QM was seen as a tool for small countries in an open economy to survive in the global competition. The titles of some of the early books indicate the ``big issues'': Quality or Chaos (Larsen, 1987) and Quality. The Future of Denmark (Dahlgaard and Skyum, 1988)[1]. The way these issues are presented also had a special tenor. Abrahamson and Fairchild (1999) show in an analysis of US literature ``that the discourse promoting quality circles tended to be particularly positive F F F, emotionally charged, and unreasoned F F F in the upswing phase of the fashion wave'' (p. 726). When the fashion setters write about the new, the tone is revolutionary and messianic: This is a revolution, a wave, a trend setting book, a breakthrough.
Total quality F F F is a movement F F F results are truly impressive. Dramatic reductions F F F (Quality) is too revolutionary to have any good synonyms (Chiampa, 1992: pp. xxii-xxiii and 7).

The new concept is usually in this phase compared favorably to preceding concepts. In Scandinavia, for instance, QM was contrasted to service management that was said to lead away from the core elements of products and services and not to represent the necessary economically conscious thinking. Such skewed comparisons might be typical of this stage. The promises of the new concept are compared favorably to the actual and therefore perhaps mediocre results of the previous wave. This promotes the new concept and contributes to killing the preceding concepts. H1.4: In the child phase big issues, exaggerated promises, and skewed comparisons dominate. Methods The problem for a new can is that it has not had time to develop very many specific methods. What are mainly available are methods that are underutilized in older cans. It can be argued that there are only two

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groups of generic methods (Barley and Kunda, 1992) that I will call mechanistic and organic. The prototypical mechanistic label is scientific management (SM) but traditions like systems analysis, strategic planning, and business process re-engineering also belong here. The prototypical organic label is human relations but traditions like corporate culture, SM, motivation/job enrichment and organizational development (OD) also belong here. The situation for QM in this area is that some methods were developed in the early (pre-1985) technical phase. Some of these methods can be seen as relatively specific to QM. They comprise statistical methods and sampling techniques, the concept of quality costs, of quality audits, and of prevention/ up-stream focus. These contributions share basic assumptions with the mechanistic paradigm. Other more original methods, such as quality circles and continual improvement belonged perhaps partly to the organic paradigm. Some methods were more generic and examples of mainstream mechanistic concepts, even if they have been given a special name and packaging in QM. To this group belongs the PDCA cycle (plan, do, check, act) ascribed to Deming (1986). This concept is identical to rational decision making models in economics and systems theory. Check sheets, Pareto diagrams, cause-effect (``fishbone'') diagrams, histograms, control charts, scatter diagrams and flowcharts (all mentioned by Dahlgaard et al. (1998) as the tools of quality control) can be seen as stemming from SM. In the end of the child phase these more technical methods were, however, drowned in the congestion in the can. Because, parallel with the entry of a broader set of problems from national challenges to general problems of managing large corporations new non-technical actors and methods were drawn to the boiling center of popularity. General concepts originating more in the organic paradigm of management and leadership, employee involvement, and culture entered the can. Total quality management (TQM) is, in Europe, defined as a ``culture of continual improvement F F F'' (EFQM, 1997b), a definition that is not likely to have been given by the old quality engineers. H1.5: Underutilized and unpopular methods are in the early stages of the 99

child phase attracted to a new can. With growing popularity a can gradually attracts all kinds of methods, especially the most popular methods of the times. After the child phase the can stands in a critical situation. Many important problems have been attracted. Many actors have been mobilized. A heterogeneous pack of methods will also normally have entered, in the case of QM stretching from the most conventional management ideas to the most modern and hot. In the original garbage can model no outcome would be feasible. No decision can come out of a can filled with so much and so heterogeneous garbage. If the can survives, it is by growing up and getting organized.

3. Growing-up (getting organized) 1990-1994

The general hypothesis for the growing-up phase (H2) expects that early actors, problems, and methods start to leave the can but that they are supplanted by others making, perhaps, for a more congenial mixture. Actors The fashion setters are now leaving the can. New books and labels are proclaimed to be some of the most revolutionary for ``this era''. Only a few years after the start of the QM wave in 1987-1988 new and hot labels like lean production (Womack et al., 1990), organizational learning (Senge, 1990), and BPR (Hammer and Champy, 1993) were attracting fashion setters and other early actors. The mainstream management consultants entered the can at this time. Pragmatic books were written on ISO 9000 certification (Sayle, 1991) and TQM (Oakland, 1989). The first groups of serious users were also active at this stage and their number was growing rapidly. In Denmark, for instance, the number of new ISO 9000 accreditations more than doubled each year between 1989 and 1993 (Ha versjo and Larsen, 1997 p. 34). Projects were established, internal and external training courses flourished. The new can QM was now a player to be reckoned with. Actors in newer cans used skewed comparisons and argued that their

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Bje Larsen

The TQM Magazine Volume 13 . Number 2 . 2001 . 95104

concept was promising more than the already partly established QM was delivering. BPR criticized QM, for instance, for realizing only marginal improvements not the fundamental changes that BPR promised. From older cans and established researchers, the newcomer also met criticism. The criticism had a debating and undifferentiated character that corresponded to how the can itself behaved until recently (e.g. Louis Printz, 1993, quoted in Dahlgaard et al., 1998 p. 67). It was mostly presented in magazines and in the general press. This criticism triggered in the last part of the phase the first wave of research into the effects of QM. Often this research was initiated or supported by actors and protagonists, e.g. certifying bodies and consulting companies. This research usually showed positive effects when the results were published a few years later (SGS Yarsley, 1995; LRQA, 1996; Ha versjo and Larsen, 1997). H2.1: In the growing-up phase fashion setters are leaving, and the first groups of ordinary users and main stream consultants are entering. H2.2: In the growing-up phase the can meets its first criticism and initiates its response. Problems Even if hard data is lacking to substantiate this, it is the author's impression that the most far-reaching problems and promises were leaving the quality can in Denmark in the early 1990s. The saving of the nation was not mentioned so often any more. Quality systems were gradually seen as management systems that could solve problems of coordination, motivation, efficiency and market penetration. This was less ambitious than in the child phase but much more ambitious than in the pre-1985 technical quality control period where the elimination and perhaps prevention of defects was central. The concept of total QM was becoming popular at this time to refer to this development. The concept of quality was correspondingly widened relative to the pre-1985 period to include product development, OD and customer satisfaction. Other problems were also attracted to the can, for example the modernization of the public sector and environmental problems. H2.3: In the growing-up phase the biggest problems are leaving. Quality

systems are reconstructed as general management systems.

Methods On the Scandinavian scene, this phase has been characterized by elimination and focus concerning methods. The remaining methods were grouped and crystallized into three methodological clusters: (1) ISO 9000 certification, which in itself contains a package of methods including formulating quality policies, describing the organization and its work methods, systems of checks, prevention, internal and external audits. (2) TQM, operationalized in the USA by the Baldridge Award and other award systems and in Europe by the EFQM criteria (EFQM, 1997a). (3) Formulation of operational quality targets and measurement of the attainment of these targets. The last cluster has perhaps crystallized most clearly in Scandinavia. H2.4: In the growing-up phase methods are leaving and a grouping and crystallization takes place.

4. Maturity (institutionalized) 1995-1999

The general hypothesis concerning the maturity phase (H3) posits that a near balance between the in-going and out-going streams of actors, problems, and methods is achieved. This means a chance for constructive work. Actors All of the early actors have now left. Most of the large consultancy companies stopped working with quality (at least having quality departments) at the end of this period. But there had up to this point of time been an influx of ordinary users. In Denmark, a full 86 per cent of a representative sample of companies in 1996 said that they ``work(ed) with quality'' (Neergaard, 1997). The corresponding numbers for USA and the UK were in the region of 75 per cent (Wilkinson and Willmott, 1995). A can with such numbers is victorious. Most companies had quality managers or the equivalent. Some new groups entered the can at this stage: schools, universities and researchers.

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QM was introduced to the curriculum at many levels of education. Institutes and centers were started. Professors of QM were appointed. New books were published not, as in the previous phase, only by consultants but the academic teachers started to write textbooks. They were more balanced and more analytical (Bounds, 1994; Dahlgaard et al., 1998). Research into the concept was undertaken on a large scale. The first research except for the technical forerunners was, as I mentioned in connection with the previous phase, often undertaken on behalf of parties with an interest in the field. Now researchers at business schools and universities were becoming active on their own. When the research is best, it is realistic and differentiated. Some things work sometimes. Others things do not. The perspective of quality is neither totally right nor totally wrong. More balanced critical studies also appeared at this stage (Wilkinson and Willmott, 1995; Harari, 1997). In this phase, professional journals and yearly conferences were also started and the existing blossomed: ``Total Quality Management'' (1989), ``World Congress for Total Quality Management'' (1996), ``International Congress for ISO 9000 and Total Quality Management'' (1995), ``International Conference on Quality Management and Economic Development'' (1997). H3.1: In the maturity phase ordinary users dominate. H3.2: In the maturity phase academic researchers and teachers enter. Balanced research is undertaken. Problems The expected tendency is that problems are leaving the can. The large and ambitious problems had left QM long ago. But also problems with more affinity to marketing, strategic management, restructuring, product- and OD, organizational learning and knowledge management were at this time by many (outside the can) recognized not to belong here but in newer cans. But the tendency is not clear. Because it seems that actors with an investment in the can did not want to let the problems disappear to newer cans without fight. That could be the explanation for the tendencies to explain that QM ``really'' is the ``same as'', a

``good beginning for F F F'', ``the learning organization'' (Hermann, 1996), lean production, knowledge management, holistic organization and other new labels. Such newer labels were also attached to book titles and conference names (Bachmann, 1996). Another way to respond to disappearing problems were to talk about ``The new TQM'', ``Beyond TQM'' (Bounds, 1994). TQM was, in Europe, re-launched as ``business excellence'' and later as the ``excellence'' model. It might perhaps be understood in the same light that the ISO 9000 revision for year 2000 broadened the perspective and turned the standard into a more general management tool. At this stage, there was also a horizontal development. The quality perspective was applied to sectors that had not yet used it and where it still has novelty value: . libraries; . lawyers; . hospitals; . social institutions; . schools. H3.3: In the maturity phase problems are leaving, but actors resist it. H3.4: In the maturity phase only new problems from ``backward'' sectors enter. Methods The concentration and refining of methods went on in this phase within the three clusters of methods mentioned earlier: (1) ISO 9000; (2) TQM; and (3) goals/measurement. New versions of ISO 9000, development of industry specific guidelines (e.g. IT, automobiles, health, food) were produced. Refined methods of audit value added audit, for instance were suggested. IT-based methods for analyzing and managing quality systems were also developed. In the TQM area, the award systems definition of what TQM is gained ground (e.g. in the form of the EFQM model), adjusted scoring methods were developed for these award systems, benchmarking databases and networks were established. New award and self-evaluation systems for public sector organizations, for different sectors and for small- and mediumsized companies were conceived. In the goals/ measurement methods cluster, new and more

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refined forms of measurement of quality in different sectors saw the light. H3.5: Concentration and refining of methods goes on.

5. Old age (specialized) 2000

QM is only about to reach this phase. Therefore the following is more speculative. No hypotheses are formulated. The general hypothesis (H4) expects that a further reduction in the level of garbage takes place in old age. What remain are the most specialized and least mobile actors, problems, and methods. Actors Most actors can be expected to leave the can. The number of quality managers and quality technicians will be reduced. They are not disappearing as persons but are being labeled in other ways in the companies. The actors remaining in the can will be those with a very high investment in the can, e.g. auditors and other technicians, very specialized, lonely consultants, the employees in the certifying organs, researchers that have specialized in the subject. It is a hard and to a degree bitter core that will be left. They might feel that the world, management, the popular press, etc., do not understand them. Problems The problems can be expected to get fewer and fewer, smaller and smaller as big issues flee to newer cans. The methods will gradually become goals and solutions to their own problems. ISO 9000 certification assures a certificate and not much more. TQM award systems provide awards. Actors might try, as discussed above, to widen the can in order to attract newer problems. Methods The main expectation is that development of methods will stop. Only detailed refining will go on. Methods will be looking more and more like bookkeeping. Even if it is difficult to recruit actors, it will increasingly at this stage be required that actors are properly trained, examined and certified to do different jobs. After old age death is expected. In management theory death can take several

forms. True death means that the concept die in the sense that nobody or very few know and care about a concept. But few concepts die fully. Some go into hibernation where a few actors keep on as if nothing had happened. From this stage, the can may revive again. QM is, as I have argued, an example of this. Another way to die is to merge with other activities. Quality might stop to be organized and labeled as something different.

6. Discussion
This article shows how actors, problems, methods and the whole tenor of a subject systematically change over the life cycle of a concept: from a messianic birth to a technical death. The garbage can life cycle model seems to give a reasonable description and prediction of these changes with two main exceptions: (1) QM existed in a latent technical state before its sudden popularity in the 1980s. (2) The development towards a more technical and narrow focus in later stages is opposed by active endeavors in these phases to widen the can and revitalize it. There are a number of limitations to the present study that must be noted. The data material is not systematically collected and further studies are needed to verify the model and the hypotheses generated from the data. There is only presented one case where several cases would have strengthened the analysis. Regarding the model it focuses on the shortterm movements and volatility that to many are so alarming in management theory but at the cost of not explaining the material and intellectual factors that over a longer time shape the problems and methods that are prominent in a given period. The model underscores that a field like QM is not a managed area. The development of a field is the outcome of a number of processes and features that no center controls. Some of these features are identified through the assumptions of the model: The loose (promiscuous) coupling between problems and methods, the ambiguity of problems, the mobility of actors, problems and methods in and out of fields, and the interaction between several fields, especially among old and new. These assumptions need more discussion and contemplation.

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According to the previous analysis QM faces old age. What can they we do to overcome the challenge of old age? There seems to be three possible strategies: (1) Retracting into full specialization. (2) Widening and attaching new fashionable themes to QM. (3) Focusing on the competitive advantages. Retracting into full specialization means to go back to the pre-1985 situation. To turn QM that should perhaps then again be termed quality control into a technical, pragmatic and non-glitzy discipline focusing on problems in the primary production processes. There are enough problems at this level to solve, and many of the tools/methods originating in the mechanistic paradigm are relevant here. This scenario does not need very much action as the model predicts this to happen. Widening and attaching new fashionable themes to QM is the strategy that I described above in connection with the problem situation in the maturity phase. This strategy is based on an appreciation of some of the fashion processes going on. It seems to argue that we have to keep up with what is happening in other cans and the interest of actors, problems, and methods to be attached to cans with high status. For many actors who are engaged in QM without having full mobility quality managers and researchers with an investment in the field, for instance this seems to be the preferred road. On the skeptical side one might argue that it can only delay death as it will probably not attract new actors, problems, and methods. Another argument is that the tools/methods available are not or only partly relevant to these wider problems (Larsen and Ha versjo , 1999). The third strategy focusing on the competitive advantages resembles the first one in that it tends to accept a reduction in the range of problems and methods that is relevant to QM. But instead of focusing on the primary production processes and the tools/techniques of a general mechanistic nature, it starts to ask what methods represent the competitive advantage or special contribution of QM. In the mind of this author this might be some mid-range and mid-paradigm perspectives like continuous improvement, prevention, up-stream focus, quality costs and process/network (logistical) perspectives across functional and

organizational borders. These techniques should be further developed and applied to all processes physical production, service production, product development, sales, and management as a sort of universal operations management. Here is a free field of action that many of today's broad ranging management concepts leave untouched. This would be my suggestion for a strategy.

Note
1 Author's translation of the titles.

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Bje Larsen

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Commentary
How on earth can ``quality'' ever go out of fashion? Anyway, here is an interesting perspective on an ever-changing world. 104