In the quality profession today, the term “guru” tends to be thrown around with reckless abandon, more often than not self-referentially by the “guru” him- or herself. Don’t get me wrong; there are many outstanding people now working in our field, with interesting and perhaps even revolutionary ideas about how to improve processes, reduce waste, and add weight to the bottom line. Several of them, I humbly submit, regularly contribute to Quality Digest.

A guru, however, is a person apart. He or she is the kind of individual who not only puts forth ideas, but leads a movement that establishes lasting change for the good. The names are familiar to us all: W. Edwards Deming. Shigeo Shingo. Arnold Feigenbaum. And, of course, Joseph M. Juran.

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