Taran March @ Quality Digest

Editorial director

Taran March is a retired editor for Quality Digest. A 35-year veteran of publishing, she has written and edited for newspapers, magazines, book publishers, and universities. 

Wed, 06/14/2023 - 12:03
The Road Not Taken Lukewarm about cars, young consumers pose a marketing riddle for automakers
Mon, 02/04/2013 - 09:29
You’ve gassed her up, you’re behind the wheel, with your arm around your sweetheart in your Oldsmobile…
—Tom Waits If you were in the business of selling a popular dream—say, freedom, status, and mobility—and you began to notice your…
Take a Hologram to Lunch And meet the new face of customer service
Tue, 06/12/2012 - 11:32
Right, let me get this straight. The uncomfortable process of air travel, bad enough with its crowding, overpriced food, and seating melees, will soon be intensified by a new airport humiliation: asking a hologram for help. And we think old ladies…
Whatever Happened to Caveat Emptor? Like it or not, we end users are links on the supply chain
Mon, 05/07/2012 - 10:12
I’m wondering when we humans started assuming that commerce must be perfect? After all, the adage “let the buyer beware” has been in circulation since folks ran around saying it in Latin. A kind of passivity seems to have crept into transactions.…
The Evolution of Electronic Angst Which came first, the technocentric parent or her plugged-in child?
Mon, 01/16/2012 - 12:48
During a recent holiday debriefing with a friend, I learned that a colleague of hers was feeling guilty because she and her husband were unable to afford an iPad for their daughter. Nodding and sipping tea, I was vaguely sympathizing while trying on…
One Is the Loneliest Number For courageous new consultants, a handbook like no other
Fri, 10/21/2011 - 14:11
Maybe the best book to come across my desk this year is Melissa Pregill’s Become One (Rojo Press, 2010). It’s all about becoming a consultant, or “independent,” as she likes to say. It’s a slim little volume, just right to leaf through during a…
Just-in-Time Supply Meets Domino Effect One country’s disaster is everybody’s kaizen
Mon, 04/11/2011 - 16:29
Story update 4/13/2011: We corrected a misquote regarding who first said, “As goes GM, so goes the nation.”Every day, it seems, business as usual gets a bit more unusual. I’ve been haunting the news portals and blogs, curious to see how experts are…
The Future’s So 3D Rapid prototyping puts quality in consumers’ hands
Thu, 02/24/2011 - 04:30
Back when I was yardstick high, a well-dressed couple on TV kept breaking into the show I was watching to enthuse about a new technology that was going to cook a complete steak dinner during the hour-long program. It was an early demonstration…
Snake Oil, Anyone? Johnson & Johnson’s over-the-counter medications promise quality, deliver lawsuits
Thu, 12/09/2010 - 07:40
Pharmaceutical manufacturer Johnson & Johnson, which for decades has enjoyed a trusted reputation for soothing babies and overcoming head colds, is currently facing criminal investigation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The…
Most Drug and Biological Product Makers Meet Postmarketing Requirements Backlog of clinical trials from 2007 are either closed or underway
Tue, 11/30/2010 - 16:13
Despite recent headlines targeting Johnson & Johnson’s uncorrected manufacturing problems and deficiencies, most makers of approved drug and biological products are meeting their regulatory obligations and targets for postmarketing studies and…
Just Say No to White Belts Where do you draw the line between certification and certi-fiction?
Mon, 10/18/2010 - 16:16
Sometimes it’s interesting to watch trends develop from the relatively safe perch of business media. A press release from Aveta Business Institute last week drew my attention because it wasn’t doing what 99.9 percent of all press releases do:…