Dieter Markworth was born in Germany in 1943, and his parents migrated to Australia in 1959. Dieter completed an apprenticeship started in Germany as an Instrument maker and qualified as an Aircraft Instrument Technician before joining IBM as a Trainee Customer Service Engineer in 1962. During a thirty-five-year career at IBM Australia, he was a Customer Service Engineer for twelve years, a Customer Service Engineering Manager for thirteen years, and Manager of Quality, IBM Australia and New Zealand for the last ten years. In that later capacity, he was responsible for Business Transformation. Dieter became an Evaluator for the Australian Business Excellence Awards in 1988 and evaluated up to four Australian Award applicants each year until 2002, mostly as the leader of an Assessment Team. In 1992, the IBM Corporation decided to assess all its organisations worldwide, using the Baldrige Criteria, the National Quality Award Criteria of the United States. Because of his experience as an Australian Business Excellence Awards Evaluator, Dieter was trained by IBM as a Baldrige Examiner in the United States and appointed as a Senior Corporate Examiner. Dieter now had the dual role of Business Transformation Manager in IBM Australia and New Zealand and evaluating IBM Organisations in South East Asia, Taiwan, Japan, Europe, and South America. In addition, his work as an Evaluation Team Leader for the Australian Business Excellence Awards continued, and he was a co-author of the major criteria rewrite in 2000. During his Business Transformation stewardship of IBM Australia, the organisation achieved the Corporate Gold Award (750 +) in 1995 and reduced its Expense to Revenue ration from 27 per cent to 18 per cent. His book, Holistic Management, the World's Best and Worst Management Practices, is based on his experience as an Australian Business Excellence Awards Evaluator, his experience as a Business Transformation Practitioner, his international experience as a Senior Corporate Baldrige Examiner, and his subsequent work as a consultant.
