Dr Manu K Vora of Illinois honored with Distinguished Alumnus Award by Banaras Hindu University - Dla times

Dr Manu K Vora of Illinois honored with Distinguished Alumnus Award by Banaras Hindu University - Dla times

Talking To The C-Suite About Quality

This blog post is in response to November 2015 ASQ Influential Voices topic "Talking To The C-Suite About Quality"a guest post  written by Dr. Suresh Gettala, a Director at ASQ India at:
http://asq.org/blog/2015/11/talking-to-the-c-suite-about-quality/

In his post Dr. Gettala made the following key points to move quality at C-Suite Level: 

1. The Long Term - Short Term Continuum
2. The Language of Metrics
3. Economic Case for Quality
4. Success Anecdotes
5. The Big Q Approach

Let me offer my thoughts on above points as follows:

     1. The Long-Term - Short Term Continuum:

For C-Level executives it is imperative that they focus on long-term (3-5 years) and short-term (6 months - 12 months) business plan tactics when they develop Vision, Mission, Values, and Strategies (VMVS) for an organization. However, they need to be nimble enough to reevaluate VMVS when there are market, regulatory, or technological disruptions. 

Quality should be a common denominator while using SWOT Analysis for strategic planning. During regular reviews of strategic plan a focus should be on achieving results through continuous process improvements using a Balanced Scorecard approach.

     2.  The Language of Metrics:

As we are familiar with a Baldrige winner's phrase "In God we trust, everyone else, please bring the data". C-Suites should be made aware of critical dashboard metrics on Customers, Employees, Processes, and Finance (Balanced Scorecard) for a given strategy. Again quality is an integral part of the Balanced Scorecard metrics

     3.  Economic Case for Quality:

The easiest way to connect with C-Suites is using Cost of Quality approach. The Cost of Quality tool lets the executives know where is the waste in the system due to External and Internal Failures and how to address them through Prevention and Appraisals. As management understand the language of money, they are amenable to provide necessary resources to reduce the Cost of Quality through continuous process improvements.

     4. Success Anecdotes:

Another good phrase from a Baldrige winner is "It is OK to steal shamelessly, just provide credit". The central idea is Not to Reinvent the Wheel. If there are best practices available, understand and adopt them in your organizations as applicable. This is where one needs to work top management to harness the power of Benchmarking. We can certainly leverage best practice examples of US Baldrige Winners whose profiles are available at (1999-2014) at:

http://patapsco.nist.gov/Award_Recipients/index.cfm

     5. The Big Q Approach:

At AT&T Bell Laboratories under the leadership of Senior Vice President Mr. Don Leonard in the Switching Systems Business Unit there was a major focus was on Big Q = Small q (performance) x Schedule (timeliness) x Cost (budget) . Provide customers what they want, when they want it, at an affordable price. The obligation for all employees is to focus on the above three metrics in their day-to-day work to achieve Big Q for the organization. It is easy to strike up a conversation at C-Level when one speaks of key efforts directed at achieving Big Q for the organization.

I would like to share few references as follows:

• Manu Vora Discusses Government Quality in India (2014) at:      

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnII-BSt45Y&feature=youtu.be 

• Manu K. Vora (2015). "Selling Quality": Expert Answers, Quality Progress, Page 8, December at: http://asq.org/quality-progress/2015/12/expert-answers.html 

I am looking forward to your experience in talking to the C-Suite about Quality.    

Does Mission Matter?

This blog post is in response to September 2015 ASQ Influential Voices topic "Does Mission Matter?"a guest post  written by Pat La Londe, incoming ASQ board chair at:
http://asq.org/blog/2015/08/does-mission-matter/

I concur with Pat's guest post. Here is my experience around a mission in for-profits, non-profits, and academic teaching in business schools globally.

Let me begin with my blog post for September 2014 on "Charting A Strategy for Quality-and Beyond" at: http://voraonquality.blogspot.com/2014/09/charting-strategy-for-quality-and-beyond.html.

Let us look at definition of Vision, Mission, and Values first.

Vision/ Mission/ Values Definitions: 

Vision (Long-term Dream, Destination):

¨Is it inspiring?

¨Is it clear and vivid?

Mission (Purpose of being, Path to your vision):

¨Why you exist? (business purpose)

¨What you hope to achieve in the future?

¨Does the Mission provide focus and inspiration?

¨Does the Mission provide criteria for strategic choices?

Values (Guiding Principles):

¨What is important to people?

¨How will people work together? 

Few quick observations:

1). Mission is developed as a part of the strategic planning process by the senior leadership team.

2). Mission should link to the organization's vision. It is a path to achieve organization's vision.

3). It is critical to share the Vision, Mission, and Values widely across the entire organization including all stakeholders. This is the obligation of senior leadership team.

4). When business conditions change, the organization's strategic plan should be reviewed to address changes in the environment.

5). The mission should be realistic and not a pie-in-the-sky statement. 

6). The strategic plan should lead to developing key strategic initiatives and which need to be prioritized and staffed with competent people. A regular review of key strategies is essential to measure the progress and success of key strategies using a Balanced Scorecard.

I want to share an example of Mission for the Blind Foundation for India (BFI), USA  established in 1989 to support over 15 million blind people in India accounting for 1/3rd of the world's blind population. The BFI mission is: "To prevent and cure blindness, and educate and rehabilitate permanently blind people in India".

I look forward to your views on Mission of your organization.

Creating a Performance Culture: What Not To Do

This blog post is in response to August 2015 ASQ Influential Voices topic "Creating a Performance Culture: What Not To Do" written by James Lawther.

From the U. S. Baldrige perspective, enterprise-wide performance excellence is key to sustainable growth and prosperity. This sounds nice on paper, however to achieve performance excellence it calls for enlightened leadership. When leaders surround themselves with competent and positive attitude associates, a journey of sustainable transformation begins. 

According Prof. Emeritus John P. Kotter from Harvard Business School (Change Management Guru), there is a Eight-Stage Process of Transformation Journey ("Leading Change" 2nd Edition, Harvard Business Review Press, Boston, MA, 2012). 

The Eight Stages of Transformation are:   

1. Establishing a Sense of Urgency
2. Creating the Guiding Coalition
3. Developing a Vision and Strategy
4. Communicating the Change Vision
5. Empowering Employees for Broad-Based Action
6. Generating Short-Term Wins
7. Consolidating Gains and Producing More Change
8. Anchoring New Approaches in the Culture 

In the eighth stage, he suggests that a new culture will emerge which needs to be weaved into new corporate style encompassing leadership development and succession planning.

Here are some Don'ts for building a Performance Culture for a Sustainable Transformation:

1. Do not launch a change initiative without establishing a sense of urgency which leads to too much complacency.
2. Do not to proceed until you have a powerful guiding coalition (team) consisting of leaders at all levels.
3. Do not create complicated or blurry Vision of Change to be useful. Need a clear and compelling statement to be effective.
4. Do not under-communicate the change vision. Need credible communication, and a lot of it to engage hearts and minds of employees.
5. Do not permit obstacles to block the new change vision. Need to change organizational structure and/or performance-appraisal systems for employees to take actions.
6. Do not hope for short-term wins (passive), but must create compelling evidence (active) within six to eight months that the journey is producing expected results.
7. Do not declare victory too soon. For the entire company it may take three to ten years to sink changes deeply into the culture.
8. Do not neglect to anchor changes firmly in the corporate culture. Reinforce specific behaviors and attitudes that helped improve performance. May require reshaping promotion criteria and succession planning.

I look forward to your views to build a performance culture.

How a Charity is Using Baldrige to Serve the Blind

Delighted to see a blog about use of Baldrige Performance Excellence framework and tools in non-profit (Blind Foundation for India) on Blogrige by National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), US Department of Commerce - courtesy Dawn M. Bailey, NIST.

How a Charity is Using Baldrige to Serve the Blind | Blogrige The Official Baldrige Blog

The official blog for the Baldrige program. The Baldrige Program's mission is to improve the...

NISTBALDRIGE.BLOGS.GOVDELIVERY.COM

How a Charity is Using Baldrige to Serve the Blind

Baldrige Focus Quality Tools to Manage a Non-Profit Organization

This blog post is in response to June 2015 ASQ Influential Voices topic "Using Quality Tools in Everyday Life".

In 1989, we established "Blind Foundation for India (BFI)" in Naperville, Illinois, USA as 501 (c) (3) charitable organization to serve over 15 million blind people in India. The BFI Mission is to prevent and cure blindness and educate and rehabilitate permanently blind people in India. India is home to one third of world's blind population.

Working in the quality management area at AT&T Bell Laboratories in Naperville, IL and being familiar with the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program, we decided to use various quality tools to manage BFI right from its inception.

• Leadership - Vision, Mission, Values, Ethics, Governance, Social Responsibility, Lean Board of Directors (6 members), PDSA

• Strategic Planning - SWOT Analysis, Balanced Scorecard, and Hoshin Planning

• Customer Focus - Voice of the Customer (VOC), single yearly update to donors (Lean)

• Measurement, Analysis, and Knowledge Management - Benchmarking with other non-profit organizations

• Workforce Focus - Recognition of Donors and Volunteers

• Operations Focus - Brainstorming, Affinity Diagram, Pareto Principle, Ishikawa Diagram, Lean, Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI), Process Mapping, SIPOC, Problem Solving, Medical Partner development in India

• Results - Feedback Reports to Donors, Gantt Chart, Critical Path Method (CPM), Risk Matrix

Use of the above mentioned tools have served BFI well for the last 26 plus years. So far, the BFI team has raised over $4.0 million and performed 125,000 free Cataract operations, donated 10,000 Braille kits to blind children for their education, and funded 115 vans to transport doctors and patients. Additionally, on the prevention front, examined eyesight of over 750,000 school-going children and provided necessary interventions such as eye drops, glasses, Vitamin A, and in rare cases Cataract removal. 

For more information on BFI, visit: http://www.blindfoundation.org

You can also listen to my TEDxIIT Chicago talk on "Exponential Power of the Gift of Giving" at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-fmkivYcVg&feature=share

Bottom line is, quality tools find application in our day-to-day life. We need to proactively use quality tools as appropriate to achieve desired results.

I am looking forward to your experience using quality tools in everyday life.

What's the Future of Quality?

This blog post is in response to May 2015 ASQ Influential Voices topic "What's the Future of Quality?".

The 2015 Future of Quality report is entitled “Quality Throughout.” After review of the 2015 Future of Quality report, I selected Health Care sector. The report shares an inspiring story of Dr. Devi Shetty, a renowned cardiac surgeon and founder of Narayana Health, India. He offered his view of challenges facing any effort to expand care throughout the developing world (see pages 34 to 39 of 2015 Future of Quality report).

The Health Care sector can make tremendous strides here in the USA and also around the world. Being a student of supply chain management, I would say the health care sector is a giant supply chain which is broken and needs major overhaul. There are too many players in the health care supply chain including pharmaceutical and medical device companies, insurance agencies, hospitals, physicians, nurses, hospital administrators, US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), The Joint Commission (TJC), and various regulatory agencies at local, state, and federal levels. Unfortunately, the incentives are misaligned among these supply chain partners leading to local optimizations. Ultimately, the real customer (patient) ends up with a lot of runaround to get proper diagnosis and needed treatment to alleviate his/her sufferings.

In 2014, the US Heath Care cost was $3.8 Trillion with GDP of  $17.42 Trillion. This puts the US health care cost at 21.8% of GDP. Globally, the US spends maximum amount of money on health care, however, the US health care outcomes are not the best in the world.

We can learn best practices from the US Baldrige in Health Care winners since 2002. All 19 winners are listed below including their year of founding in parenthesis. Their Award Application Summaries can be used as Health Care best practices using the link provided. (http://patapsco.nist.gov/Award_Recipients/index.cfm).

         Ø2002 – SSM Health Care, St. Louis, MO (1872)

         Ø2003 – Baptist Hospital, Inc., Pensacola, FL (1951)

          Ø2003 – Saint Luke’s Hospital of Kansas City, Kansas City, MO (1882)

          Ø2004 – Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Hamilton, Hamilton, NJ (1940)

        Ø2005 – Bronson Methodist Hospital, Kalamazoo, MI (1900)

        Ø2006 – North Mississippi Medical Center, Tupelo, MS (1937)

          Ø2007 – Mercy Health System, Janesville, WI (1989)

          Ø2007 – Sharp HealthCare, San Diego, CA (1955)

          Ø2008 – Poudre Valley Health System, Fort Collins, CO (1925)

Ø2009 – AtlantiCare, Egg Harbor Township, NJ (1975)

Ø2009 – Heartland Health, St. Joseph, MO (1984)

Ø2010 – Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital, Downers Grove, IL (1976)

Ø2011 – Henry Ford Health System, Detroit, MI (1915)

Ø2011 – Schneck Medical Center, Seymour, IN (1911)

Ø2011– Southcentral Foundation, Anchorage, AK (1982)

Ø2012 – North Mississippi Health Services, Tupelo, MS (1937)

Ø2013 – Sutter Davis Hospital, Davis, CA (1981)

Ø2014 – Hill County Memorial, Fredericksburg, TX (1971)

Ø2014 – St. David’s  HealthCare, Austin, TX (1924)

The definition of Health Care Quality practiced by the above winning organizations are:

       ØCaring and Compassionate Healing
ØProvide the Right Care, in the Right Setting, at the Right Time, at an Affordable Cost
ØPatient Satisfaction/ Delight
ØTimely Health Care Delivery
ØPositive Outcomes
ØMinimum Adverse Incidents (Zero Defects)
ØReduction in Mortality and Morbidity Rates
ØCost Efficacy
ØMeeting Compliance Standards

I look forward to hear your thoughts on Future of Quality in the Health Care Sector. 

Dr Manu Vora honored with ASQ’s Ishikawa Medal for innovative contributions and achievements - Dla times

Dr Manu Vora honored with ASQ’s Ishikawa Medal for innovative contributions and achievements - Dla times

The Pros and Cons of Conferences

This blog post is in response to April 2015 ASQ Influential Voices topic "The Pros and Cons of Conferences".

This month's question is to the quality community about the value of conferences, meetings, and in-person events. How do you decide which ones to attend? Do you stay close to home or is international travel desired or necessary? If you travel, do you go to learn, network, or both?

First let me share my personal experience organizing/attending conferences, meetings, and in-person events over the last 30 plus years.

• AT&T Bell Labs Quality Management Retreat, New Jersey (summer 1985) - Lead Organizer:

          A two-day retreat with International Switching Systems Business Unit management 
          with Dr. Joseph Juran in attendance. Focus was sharing quality improvement plans 
          across various divisions through various teams. Great success in sharing major 
          initiatives across entire business unit to develop synergy and encourage 
          networking.

• AT&T Bell Labs Switching Systems Business Unit Recognition Event (fall 1992) - Lead Organizer:

          Around 6,000 employees from three countries (Netherlands, U.K., and USA) gathered 
          for a 1/2 day Recognition event in Illinois. There were lot of logistical challenges, 
          however, the cultural issue of giving and receiving Recognition was driven 
         home across the entire work force under one roof.

• ASQ 50th Annual Quality Congress, Chicago (AQC,  now World Conference for Quality and Improvement) (May 1996) - Chair, Host Committee

          After 3 years of benchmarking of previous AQCs, our core team of 12 Member 
          Leaders from 6 ASQ Sections in Illinois area organized world-class experience 
         for over 3,000 attendees from around the world. A small army of 300 ASQ 
          member volunteers made all the gusts feel at home. Our team had a simple vision 
         "serve all guests as your personal guests" and it worked well. To date many ASQ 
          members rave about what an experience they had at the 50th AQC including 
          International Dances and Chicago Police Department Bag Pipers welcoming guests at 
          Tuesday night dinner banquet. These ASQ Section Leaders then started a       
         Northern Illinois Quality Conference (NIQC) in 1998 through 2012.       

• ASQ Northern Illinois Quality Conferences (NIQC) - Vice Chair Technical Program and Recognition (1998-2012):

          For 15 years, four ASQ Sections (Chicago, Fox Valley, Illiana, and Northern Illinois) 

          organized a high-value conference with workshops to serve members and non-

          members from the Mid-West area. There was tremendous teamwork among 

          sections and the conferences were well managed both financially and 

         technically. All NIQCs were in black (a record for any ASQ conferences) and serve  

         the community for a long time providing great networking opportunities.

• ASQ Peru International Quality Congress - Chair Technical Program (2011, 2013, 2015):

          In Lima, Peru starting in 2011, every two years an International Quality Congress is 

          held attracting over 180 attendees from industry and academia. This high-value 

          congresses provide excellent opportunity to learn from global thought 

          leaders and offer networking opportunities to quality professionals.

Let me summarize Pros and Cons for organizing conferences, meetings, and in-person events.

Pros:

• Face-to-face Knowledge Sharing 

• Professional Networking opportunities

• Fostering teamwork among volunteer organizers

• Serve members and non-members though value addition

Cons:

• Logistics management challenges

• Fiscal management challenges

• Understanding attendee expectations for value-added events

• Project management challenges

Personally, I attend many face-to-face events globally as well as leverage technology (Google Hangouts and Webinars) for free knowledge transfer to engineering students and quality professionals in India. For more information see the following links at:

http://iit.org/blog/2015/03/15/free-knowledge-transfer-using-technology/

http://www.itbhuglobal.org/chronicle/archives/2015/03/letter_sent_by.php

I look forward to learning from your experiences.

Encourage the Next Generation of STEM Professionals

This blog post is in response to March 2015 ASQ Influential Voices topic "Encourage the Next Generation of STEM Professionals".

To start with let me include my blog post on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) from February 14, 2012 here -

http://voraonquality.blogspot.com/2012/02/stem.html.

Personally, I strongly believe in nurturing math and science skills with youngsters in K-12. Once they see the value and impact of it in real life, they will continue to take interest in those subjects. 

With a strong foundation in math and science, youngsters will be equipped with necessary skills to enter engineering and technology fields. To survive and thrive in the global economy, STEM is extremely important.

Importance of STEM in India:

In 1947, after gaining independence from the United Kingdom, India needed to develop its own industries. To achieve this objective, the Indian Institute of Technology (IITs). were created. In 1951, the first IIT opened in Kharagpur in West Bengal followed by Bombay, Maharashtra (1958), Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh and Madras, Tamil Nadu (1959), and Delhi (1963). Over the years more IITs were added and currently there are 16 IITs with 10,000 seats.

In India, IITs are autonomous public institutes of higher education. They are governed by the Institutes of Technology Act, 1961 which has declared them as "institutions of national

importance", and lays down their powers, duties, framework for governance, etc. The Institutes of Technology Act, 1961 lists sixteen institutes located at Bhubaneswar, Chennai, Delhi, Gandhinagar, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Indore, Jodhpur, Kanpur, Kharagpur, Mandi, Mumbai, Patna, Ropar, Roorkee and Varanasi. Each IIT is an autonomous institution, linked to the others through a common IIT Council, which oversees their administration. The IITs award degrees ranging from B. Tech. to Ph.D. The IITs have a common admission process for undergraduate admissions. It was called IIT-JEE, which was replaced by Joint Entrance Examination in 2013.

In April 2014 over 1,356,000 students appeared for JEE (Main) of which 128,000 qualified for JEE (Advanced) competing for 10,000 seats in 16 IITS (overall 0.74% Admit rate, which is much tougher than prestigious schools in the US). Those who could not get into IITs, go to 30 National Institutes of Technology (NITs) and other engineering colleges.

These centrally funded IITs are heavily subsidized (80%) by the Indian Government. Graduates from the IITs have spread out globally making outstanding contributions in engineering, science, and allied fields.

I was fortunate to study chemical engineering at the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) now 16th IIT (BHU), Varanasi. After my B. Tech., I joined the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago to complete my graduate work with M.S. and Ph.D. in chemical engineering. After working for few years in the industry, I realized the value of business education and obtained my MBA in marketing management from the Keller Graduate School of Management in Chicago. I personally believe engineers need to understand business aspects to make bigger contributions. Hence, exposure to business courses during engineering studies is beneficial to both industry and the individual.

In summary, in India there is a national mandate to develop STEM professionals by providing opportunities through education funded by the Government. With this STEM emphasis, India has achieved a top place in information technology field.

I came across an article from Harvard Business Review (March 24, 2015) by Joan C. Williams entitled "The 5 Biases Pushing Women Out of STEM". The article is talking about biases, and not pipeline issues or personal choices, pushing women out of science - and that bias plays differently depending on a women's race or ethnicity.

I look forward to your personal experience with STEM.

Why Should Quality “Go Global”?

This blog post is in response to February 2015 ASQ Influential Voices topic "Why Should Quality "Go Global"?"

ASQ's mission statement talks about increasing the use of and impact of quality in response to the diverse needs of the world. In my humble opinion, we need to do more, throughout the world, to accomplish that mission.

Here is my logic for 'Why':

• In the 21st Century, globalization is the name of the game. An organization cannot survive and prosper, if it is only US focused.

• Need for good education, proper healthcare, and responsive government are universal.

• With limited global resources, need exists to ensure people's livelihood through economic prosperity.

• We are polluting the world (air, land, water) faster than our forefathers did.

• World is constantly in turmoil due to barbaric and uncivilized behavior of few people and groups.

Here is my logic for 'What' should be done:

• Take a case of global supply chains. In the globalized scenario, the key players of the supply chain (suppliers, manufacturers, distributors, retailers, and customers) could be anywhere in the world. When these key players integrate quality management to optimize their entire supply chains, they will achieve best performance for their supply chains. 

• There is a need to skillfully integrate quality management with supply chain management to create innovative products/services to provide for the global citizens. ASQ should promote the use of Baldrige Performance Excellence Criteria for better management of  global supply chains.

• Quality is a common denominator for providing access, containing cost, and ensuring best outcomes in education, healthcare, and government sectors. ASQ should act as a catalyst to share best practices in all sectors globally.

• For Economic prosperity, ASQ should promote effective and efficient deployment of ISO 9001 Standards globally.

• For Environmental stewardship, ASQ should promote effective and efficient implementation of ISO 14001 Standards universally.

• For Social Responsibility, ASQ should disperse effective and efficient use of ISO 26000 Standards for good governance and promote spirit of cooperation and collaboration among 7 billion people on this earth.

Here is 'How' we can carry the "Quality Torch" forward collectively and individually: 

• Education Sector: ASQ India in collaboration with IIT (BHU) Varanasi, IIT BHU Global Alumni Association (IBGAA), and Business Excellence, Inc., USA we  initiated a Free Knowledge Transfer Using Technology (Google Hangouts). Under this initiative a 12 session Leadership Excellence Series (LES) was unveiled in August 2014 to impart soft skills and quality management principles/practices to India's top 1% of youth in engineering college. The resultant YouTubes are shared widely with 6,500 students, faculty, and administration at the IIT (BHU) campus.

          https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140822213201-1800896-knowledge-transfer-via-google-hangout?trk=mp-           reader-card

          https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140902040132-1800896-successful-launch-of-iit-bhu-asq-india-leadership-excellence-series 

• Healthcare Sector: In 1989, we established Blind Foundation for India (BFI) with a mission to prevent and cure blindness as well as provide education and rehabilitation to over 15 million visually challenged people in India. This staggering number translates to one out of three blind people in the world residing in India. 

          Refer to my April 13, 2013 TEDxIIT Chicago Talk on "Exponential Power of the                      
          Gift of Giving" at  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-fmkivYcVg&feature=share 

• Government Sector: Refer to ASQ™ TV - Quality and Indian Government at:       https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20141003192404-1800896-asq-tv-quality-and-indian-government?trk=mp-reader-card

• Social Responsibility:  On April 7, 2013 gave my TEDxIIT BHU Varanasi, India Talk on "Leveraging Social Responsibility to Unite the World" at         https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94kXi9WTl04

ASQ and quality professionals have treasure trove of knowledge which needs to be disseminated to uplift citizens of the world for economic prosperity, environmental stewardship, and peaceful coexistence.

I look forward to learn from your perspectives and practical experience in making Quality Global.

Finding Inspiration from Quality Leaders

This blog post is in response to January 2015 ASQ Influential Voices topic "Finding Inspiration from Quality Leaders?"

In my journey of excellence I have come across several leaders who influenced my thought process.
Here are few of them whose teachings inspired me including lessons I have learned from each one of them.

1). Late Prof. Gopal Tripathi, Head of Department, Chemical Engineering & Technology, IIT (BHU), Varanasi, UP, India

I had my good fortune to study from a Giant in the field of chemical engineering whose contributions made a great impact for chemical engineering education in post-Independent India.

Lessons Learned:  

• Subject Mastery - He shared his deep technical knowledge in an engaging ways. He was an  inspiration to kindle my interest in teaching. It is my pleasure to teach quality management and operations management as an adjunct faculty in business schools in USA and India for the last 22 years.
• Humility -  He had photographic memory and would always greet students by their name. He is my role model to keep me grounded throughout my life.   

2). Prof. Darsh Wasan, Motorola Chair Professor in Chemical Engineering and Vice President, Illinois Institute of Quality (IIT), Chicago, Illinois, USA

After coming to the United States for my graduate work at IIT Chicago, I was privileged to work with Prof. Darsh Wasan for my research work. He is an eminent academician and a researcher blazing new trails in the field of surface phenomena and chemical engineering.

Lessons Learned:

• Focus: He would communicate with students to remain focused whether conducting research or writing reports and proposals. He had exacting standards and high expectations. I have learned the importance of simple communication, focus, and setting high expectations of everyone I interact with including my family members and friends.

• Networking: I witnessed his extraordinary networking abilities connecting with professionals. I learned a life-long lesson to keep building my network. It has served me well, both professionally and personally.

3). Mr. John Delatore, Retired Director, International Switching Systems Engineering, AT&T Bell Laboratories, Naperville, Illinois, USA

I worked with Mr. John Delatore in Systems Engineering at AT&T Bell Laboratories. He provided extra-ordinary support for quality planning and implementation initiatives in the International Switching Systems Engineering Division.

Lessons Learned:

• Visionary: He spearheaded quality planning and implementation initiatives from grounds up. His vision and foresight to bring the best practices from both within and outside of AT&T to benefit the organization was par excellence. I learned how to leverage best practices and always stay focused on the improvement journey.

• Caring: He had very high standards, however, he would always care and support his people. I learned the importance of caring for people and provide required support when leading projects.

4). Late Dr. Hans Bajaria, ASQ Medalist and ASQ Fellow, Dearborn Heights, Michigan, USA

I had a pleasure to interact with late Dr. Hans Bajaria for over a decade. He was a great ambassador for quality management. With his keen insights he served his clients well globally.  

Lessons Learned: 

• Innovation: He used to look for innovative ways to tackle customer issues. I learned from him how to be customer focused and find end-to-end solutions in an innovative ways. 
• Boldness: As a subject matter expert, he would speak his mind challenging conventional wisdom. I learned how to present a counter-point with conviction to persuade others about the merit of my proposal.

5). Mr. Ron Kingen, Past President and Chair of ASQ, President, CVI Group, LLC, Racine, Wisconsin, USA

It has been a delight to interact with Mr. Ron Kingen, the past President and Chair of ASQ for over 25 years. First at the ASQ Certification Board, then at ASQ Board level including the ASQ Capital Campaign.

Lessons Learned:

• Inclusiveness: He is a role model for inclusiveness. Working on a variety of teams, his insight to engage members from different background is outstanding. I learned a simple lesson on working with diverse group of people to achieve best project results. 

• Respect for People: He exhibits tremendous respect for everyone he interacts with. I have learned from him how to be a professional and respect everyone, irrespective of their viewpoints or positions.

6). Mr. Navin Dedhia, Past Member of ASQ Board, San Jose, California, USA

I have a pleasure to interact with Mr.Navin Dedhia for over 25 years at ASQ at the ASQ Certification Board, ASQ International Chapter Member Advancement Team, ASQ Capital Campaign, and ASQ Fellow Process Coach Team.

Lessons Learned:

• Global Focus: He was Chair/Trustee of the ASQ International Chapter for over 18 years. He nurtured involvement from the International quality community which paved the way for ASQ to become ASQ Global. My lesson is how to look beyond the US borders to add value for global ASQ members. 

• Mentoring: Has has mentored generation of quality professionals globally in a most effective way. His mentoring contributions are phenomenal. I learned a lesson from him on becoming a mentor to other quality professionals.

I look forward to hear about your views on this topic.