Quick advice: go read this thing. The eleven essays sandwiched between Bill Troy´s introduction and Cecilia Kimberlin conclusion (ASQ CEO and ASQ Chair for 2015 respectively) are some of the finest business, social, public, engineering and of course QUALITY readings one can find. Just two days ago I told Luz María Karg, head of ASQ Mexico, that if there is one thing ASQ does right is precisely this “Future of Quality” report. Whether you are a member of ASQ or not, you can download the report here… And a quick note: if you are NOT a member, what are you waiting for? So much good stuff is waiting for you (start your journey here).
These eleven essays by fourteen authors feed this idea I´ve been chewing recently, that now that the last of the original Quality Gurus is gone, we are all somehow required to become a huge network of gurus ourselves. The diversity of knowledge from soft skills to advanced statistics, the myriad of professions whether a nurse, and engineer or a public servant, these all mean we all have something to say, something to share, and a lot to learn from each other.
The report starts with the future of leadership. Adaptable quality leaders, everywhere in the world, in all kinds of settings, at all hierarchical levels, and networking to help and inspire each other, are required. From there it continues with and interesting warning about the almost infinite potential of the Internet and the need of some form of control to balance “security and openness”. Then the writers open the discussion for quality and management, quality and smart manufacturing, quality and cities, quality and healthcare, quality and education, quality and energy, quality and customer experience, quality and continuous improvement, and last Noriaki Kano, sort of a big brother of this new network of thousand of gurus, advises us on “quality for sales” beyond quality for cost and the whole customer satisfaction experience.
ASQ chair, Cecilia Kimberlin closes with these words: “what is quality for the future? Imagine a future where quality is an essential connector – a framework and network – for developing and advancing capabilities to create a better world and society”.
One last wish, I really hope this report has been translated to as many languages as possible, because leaders all over the world can greatly benefit from the richness of ideas presented by this excellent group of thinkers.
