Book excerpt: This book bridges two essential aspects of assessing and achieving business excellence in 21st-century organizations. The author argues that transnational companies face a twofold challenge: managing global knowledge networks and multicultural project teams on the one hand; and interacting and collaborating across boundaries using global communication technologies, on the other. The author also argues that this dual challenge calls for the creation of a business excellence program that fits and thrives within these multicultural environments. In response, he reviews corporate practices in quality management and business excellence frameworks that have been extensively used on a transnational scale to drive organizational performance. The book approaches quality management as an element that is no longer a choice, but has now become a necessity if companies want to compete in highly globalized environments.