Innovation, claims quality consultant Subir Chowdhury, is part of
America's DNA. No other country in the world matches America's creative
drive and its ability to turn innovative ideas into revolutionary
products-from antilock brakes and steel-belted radial tires to
sophisticated software and microprocessors. But as fast as we introduce
new products, we lose the markets we establish to countries that know
how to manufacture higher quality versions for less money. As Japanese
and European firms win market share by concentrating on quality,
America is continually forced to rely on innovation to stay ahead.
In The Ice Cream Maker, Chowdhury uses a simple story to illustrate
how businesses can instill quality into our culture and into every
product we design, build, and market. The protagonist of the story is
Peter Delvecchio, the manager of a regional ice cream company, who is
determined to sell its ice cream to a flourishing national grocery
chain, Natural Foods. In conversations with the Natural Foods manager,
Peter learns how the extraordinarily successful retailer achieves its
renowned high standard of excellence, both in the services it provides
its customers and in the foods it manufactures and sells. Quality, he
discovers, must be the mission of every employee; by learning to
listen, enrich, and optimize, he can encourage and sustain the
highest levels of quality in everything the company does.
Like Fish! and Who Moved My Cheese? The Ice Cream Maker offers an
essential and universal lesson about one of industry's foremost
challenges in a thoroughly engaging style. For managers and executives,
small business owners and entrepreneurs, The Ice Cream Maker is a
compelling, eye-opening guide to the most effective ways to achieve
excellence and become industry leaders on the global stage.