Every movement needs a champion. When I first got involved in Quality in the early 1990s, our champions at the time (to the best of my recollection) were Motorola and Ericsson. They were quoted, cited, lauded, these boys were our darlings

Strangely, their role as champions came to an end not as the result of what we’d consider a classic “quality Problem”, in that there were no scandals, no products started flipping out, nothing like that. No, their reign came to an end when they got pezzled by the more agile, visionary and opportunistic Nokia in the market place. They came from nowhere and overtook the two giants by a strategic master stroke. They identified that there were more kids than businessmen, and they made a product that would be attractive to kids. Simple, but quite brilliant as a concept, and they executed it wonderfully well

We looked for a new champion and the mantle was bestowed upon Toyota. So the quality blogosphere has been to a large extent dominated by Toyota over the past 10 years, with that company’s practices being held up as models for the rest of us. Now it looks like there will be another changing of the guard

Anyway, I’m more than a little intrigued as to who will step up to the plate. So much so that I put out a shout on LinkedIn yesterday just to see who my peers were prepared to nominate

I was not too surprised when the question stirred a lot of interest and response. Right now “Toyota stories” are creating the buzz. I was more surprised to find that most of the responders were guessing that our new champion would again emerge from the automotive sector. It was almost like that time when all Popes had to be Italian, that the thought of a champion outside automotive was, apparently, to many unlikely

Only time will tell of course, but personally I yearn for our new champion to be one of those types that is good at a range of “qualities” – a bit like a Nokia. Conformity is one thing (making things that last and don’t break), but I have a fondness for companies that manage to align that reliability with a strategic awareness that blows away the competition on all fronts. I’m not seeing one of those in automotive just now

Anyway, I’ll be watching the landscape with interest and in time I’m sure we’ll see who the new Pope will be. If you have any ideas, please add your ten cents with a comment. I always reply