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.