Review: Chronicles of a Quality Detective

Chronicles of a Quality Detective launched at Crossword

Crossword, Kemps Corner played host to the launch and reading of authors S Gondhalekar’s and Payal Sheth’s management book "Chronicles of a Quality Detective" on Tuesday, March 8. The audience discovered the power of 'Kaizen' and technique of ‘Differential Diagnosis’ as the chief guest for the event, "Kaizen Guru", Masaaki Imai together with Mr Prakash Kunte, General Manager - Corporate HRD, Raymond Ltd. and the authors had a special interactive session on this topic.

Quality defects tend to be tenacious. Often they linger at a certain level, even after the most sophisticated quality management techniques have been deployed. This is usually because the root causes have not been accurately diagnosed.

The book contains a series of eight, dramatised, real-life case studies, through the medium of a professor and protégée relationship which he delineates a new and powerful problem-solving technique called 'Differential Diagnosis'. It demonstrates how to overcome the difficulties of application, allowing the practitioner to transcend from knowledge to profound knowledge. Dr Gondhalekar has used this technique to resolve intractable quality problems, with dramatic results. The book is written in an easy-to-read style and is based on real cases that he has solved.

Mr Masaaki Imai, Founder Chairman of the Kaizen Institute, has written the foreword to the book.

Dr. Gondhalekar is a Director of the Kaizen Institute, a global consulting organization. He is also Dean (Operations Management) at the Welingkar Institute of Management Development and Research, Mumbai.

Payal Sheth has recently completed her Masters in Management studies from the Welingkar Institute, Mumbai. She is currently working with the Taj Group of Hotels.

Masaaki Imai, often referred to as the "Kaizen guru", is the revered Japanese father of Kaizen, or continuous improvement. He was born in Tokyo in 1930. In 1955, he received his bachelor's degree from the University of Tokyo. In 1962, he founded Cambridge Corp., an international management and executive recruiting firm. From 1976 to 1986, Mr. Imai served as president of the Japan Federation of Recruiting and Employment Agency Associations.