David Burbidge, chairman of Burbidge & Son, spoke first and explained how an all-embracing take-up of Japanese management techniques, largely learnt from Toyota, had allowed his firm well and truly to bust the late eighties recession and to use it as an opportunity to beat the competition. David spoke as if even he was surprised by his firm's subsequent success.
John Baldwin of UKfirst, the furniture industry's "Buy our expertise" arm of FIRA, emphasised the boxes that good management now has to tick, having included the workforce in the process, if it is to take advantage of the opportunities now opening and to succeed rather than merely to survive.