A list of quality gurus can range from just a few individuals to 50 or more. Several people make it onto most lists: W. Edwards Deming, Joseph Juran, Armand Feigenbaum, Phil Crosby, and Walter Shewhart, all from the United States; and Japanese quality practitioners Karou Ishikawa and Genichi Taguchi. Other important people helped to pave the way for the modern field of quality, but these are the most famous.

My interest in quality started during spring break in my first year of college, when I saw a book by Deming in a small shop in Hannibal, Missouri. It was just random chance that brought me together with the book, but it was an event that changed my life. By the end of spring break, and the end of the book, I’d decided I wanted to work in the field of quality. Deming showed me that it could be more than just a job; it was a philosophy. From reading Deming’s books I also learned that quality is more than just selling products that function; it’s about providing society with a product that has some degree of value.

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