You might be interested to read about William Deming: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Edwards_Deming https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Edwards_Deming He was br

You might be interested to read about William Deming: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Edwards_Deming https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Edwards_Deming He was brought in by MacArthur during the post-WW2 occupation of Japan to help get their industry running again. You can see some of the seeds of TQM/The Toyota Production System in his management philosophies. His management theories are interesting to me because of the emphasis placed on leadership, and the success and failure of systems of production being almost entirely their responsibility (he claimed around 85% of production variance was due to systemic factors i.e. entirely within managerial control). Some of his 'deadly diseases' seem particularly relevant in this thread. I've seen many MBA/MPA trained managers makes these errors: The "Seven Deadly Diseases" include: - Lack of constancy of purpose - Emphasis on short-term profits - Evaluation by performance, merit rating, or annual review of performance - Mobility of management - Running a company on visible figures alone - Excessive medical costs - Excessive costs of warranty, fueled by lawyers who work for contingency fees "A Lesser Category of Obstacles" includes: - Neglecting long-range planning - Relying on technology to solve problems - Seeking examples to follow rather than developing solutions - Excuses, such as "our problems are different" - The mistaken belief that management skills can be taught in classes - Reliance on quality control departments rather than management, supervisors, managers of purchasing, and production workers - Placing blame on workforces who are only responsible for 15% of mistakes where the system designed by management is responsible for 85% of the unintended consequences - Relying on quality inspection rather than improving product quality