I Know It When I See It: A Modern Fable About Quality [Paperback]

John Guaspari (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 9, 1991

The quality parable that sold over 250,000 copies in hardcover.

Product Details

• Paperback: 96 pages
• Publisher: AMACOM (December 9, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0814477631
• ISBN-13: 978-0814477632
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #753,192 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly Recommended!, April 4, 2001

By 

Rolf Dobelli "getAbstract" (Switzerland) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: I Know It When I See It: A Modern Fable About Quality (Paperback)

John Guaspari's instructive and amusing fable about "Quality" has been a favorite in the business world since it was first published in 1985. As it points out what to do and what not to do in the pursuit of quality and market share, the book illustrates the ups and downs of Punctuation, Inc., the mythical company founded by the inventor of punctuation. This thought-provoking and entertaining little book takes only an hour or two to read, but the author intends for its message to stick with you for a lifetime. We [...] recommend this book to executives, managers, customer-service employees and those who run their own businesses.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A quick read that makes us re-think our Quality initiatives!, August 23, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: I Know It When I See It: A Modern Fable About Quality (Paperback)

A great book that educates on many of the misadventures of quality-enhancement efforts. Fun to read.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A modern fable about quality., October 10, 2004

By 

Kevin M Quigg (Gettysburg, Pennsylvania United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: I Know It When I See It: A Modern Fable About Quality (Paperback)

I read this book back in the 80s and it is still quite relevant today. It talks about a fictional company called Punctuation and how it lost market share to an up and coming company. The reason they lost market share was due to quality. How to reverse that trend is the nature of this story. Suffice to say many companies (and bosses) continue to fall into the same traps to regain their market share and profitablity.
This is a great and quick read about what quality should be. Since it is so brief and the language is so simple, most reading audiences can easily understand the topic and moral of the story. It would be a great book to hand out to production, service, and management personnel.