Introduction
Over the course of history, there have always been the people who have been the guiding light for the entire nation, choosing the track for the country to go. Wise and resourceful, these people felt at a certain moment that the country needs changes, and picked the most appropriate path possible. Without the gurus of economics, the world would have had twice as many chances to collapse. As Department of Trade and Industry, the author of the article titled The original quality gurus claim, since 1940, the world has seen three types of gurus, namely, “The Americans who took the messages of quality to Japan” (Department of Trade and Industry, n.d., p. 1), “Japanese who developed new concepts in response to the Americans” (Department of Trade and Industry, n.d., p. 1), and “Westerm gurus who followed the Japanese industrial success” (Department of Trade and Industry, n.d., p. 1).
Main body
On the one hand, the fact that the author has chosen only two specific countries (namely, the USA and Japan) is evidence of the fact that the article is quite narrow and is focused on a relatively short period of time. On the other hand, it seems that the Department of Trade and Industry has picked the given countries and the given slot to illustrate the idea of a guru since gathering the data from the entire world and throughout its entire history does not seem possible. Therefore, the definition of a guru in the given case is rather broad since the author admits that a guru is “a good person, a wise person and a teacher” (Department of Trade and Industry, n.d., p. 1), yet the examples make the readers focus on the economical aspect of a guru’s activity.
It is worth mentioning that the author of the report offers several gurus for each of the above-mentioned type, thus, developing a chain of events and listing the people who had an impact on it. Starting with Deming’s fourteen-art plan, the author led the readers to Juran’s trilogy. In its turn, the trilogy allowed us to see the rationale behind Ishikawa’s idea of quality and Taguchi’s level of quality. Finally, ending the line of the Japanese who followed the American paradigm of development, the Department of Trade and Industry offers Shingo’s ideas, which concern mostly “Just-in-Time manufacturing” (Department of Trade and Industry, n.d., p. 4). Compared to the previous list, the choice of the gurus who influenced the Western world seems quite legit as well; picking Crosby’s “Zero Quality” work, Department of Trade and Industry shows the development of the perception of quality standards. Ending with the ideas offered by Tom Peters, the report describes the economic perspectives of the 1920-1950ies.
Conclusion
Thus, it can be considered that the given report is not as full as the source material allows it to be, yet considerably profound and thought-provoking. Therefore, the given report offers an honest and detailed description of the gurus of the 1950-1980ies, as well as the influence they had on American and Japanese economics. Despite the fact that several questions concerning the precision of the data and the obvious negative effects which the chosen strategies must have left, The original quality gurus by the Department of Trade and Industry is a good example of an expository piece of writing and a report concerning the economical changes occurring in several countries.
Reference List
Department of Trade and Industry, n.d., The original quality gurus.