The last two years has caused unprecedented turmoil and sadness for many families. Over five million people have died due to Covid, and many more millions have had their health compromised or their livelihoods jeopardised.

A huge loss for the benchmarking community has been the passing of Professor Mohamed Zairi after a spirited fight against Covid. Mohamed died aged 65 in October 2021.

Professor Mohamed Zairi was my friend and an inspiration to many of us in the Global Benchmarking Network. Mohamed born in Algeria undertook his academic studies in the UK and became acknowledged worldwide for his contributions to Total Quality Management, Business Excellence and Benchmarking. In later years his home became the United Arab Emirates where he made outstanding contributions to the country through serving as a Senior Adviser to the Prime Minister’s Office where he helped to develop the Government Excellence Model and chaired many Government Excellence Awards.

Mohamed has been a thought leader in the quality profession for over 35 years. His strength has been to have a broad-based view of quality and a deep understanding of current business trends and challenges from which he can prescribe relevant and often innovative quality-based solutions.

Mohamed was one of the pioneers of the benchmarking concept, writing 5 books in this field including one of the first books on benchmarking applications. Mohamed founded the Benchmarking International Journal which is now in its 28th volume. Mohamed was appointed as the first Professor in Best Practice Management globally. Between 1994-95, Mohamed helped set up the European Best Practice Benchmarking Award, for which he was appointed as Chairman.

Indeed, Mohamed was a great inspiration to me when I was undertaking my PhD on Total Quality Management between 1988 and 1992. I could always count on Mohamed being at the forefront of the field and sharing new concepts and techniques for business improvement. His early books and practitioner guidelines on TQM-based Performance Measurement: Practical Guidelines and Competitive Benchmarking: An Executive Guide were must reads and made the quality profession an exciting profession to study and work in – quality was placed as central to business success.

Since those early days Mohamed has written over 70 books many of which have been ground-breaking and this continued to the very end with Mohamed’s book “Is Quality the Silver Lining to our Current and Future Crises?” where he discusses the role of quality in managing the Covid Pandemic – the first author to link “quality” to the Covid Pandemic. For an overview of this book watch this inspiring video.

For a list of all Mohamed’s books visit the European Centre for Best Practice Management Publishing House and to learn more about his company visit Excellence Trilogy.

Read a full review of Mohamed’s work at http://www.excellencetetralogy.com/our-founder/

To gain an understanding of Mohamed’s importance to the quality world and how he has touched his friends and family with his intelligence, humour, and generosity there are some wonderful testimonials in this YouTube Video.

I will leave you with one of Mohamed’s quotes:

“Quality is the answer to all our needs, it protects our life, nourishes our senses, guides our dreams and defines our purpose“ Professor Mohamed Zairi, 1956-2021

Professor Mohamed Zairi you will be greatly missed by all of us at the GBN.

May you rest in peace.

Dr Robin Mann, Chairman, Global Benchmarking Network (GBN)