Risk Taking, Fear of Failure, and Innovation

From the dawn of civilization our ancestors took variety of risks, failed at some, gathered themselves up, and made innovative progress to usher us in the modern age.

Risk taking is part of life. If one remains in her/his comfort zone and does not take risks, she/he will not make rapid progress. Again, one needs to recognize what type of risks and what are its consequences. We can take a page from the project management discipline where all projects require proper risk management. The risk management process calls for identification of all risks, analyzing and assessing all risks, developing plans to mitigate risks by minimizing probability of risks occurrence, and establishing contingency plans for dealing with any risks that do manifest.

Let me share my personal example of risk taking and its impact in my life. After high school, I left the comfort of my home to go to Bombay (450 miles away) and stayed in a boarding house. Learning from the benefit of earlier risk taking, two years later I was ready to go to Varanasi (1,000 miles away) for my undergraduate studies in chemical engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology Banaras Hindu University (IIT BHU), a residential university. Again, after four years when opportunity came, I came to Chicago (8,000 miles away) for my graduate work at the Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago.

My first job was at the Institute of Gas Technology in Chicago in a federally funded energy R&D work. While in between jobs, I took a risk to start my MBA at Keller Graduate School of Management. Then I got an opportunity to join AT&T Bell Laboratories while taking risk to move from chemical engineering to telecommunications. Within a year, a new opportunity arrived to start quality planning and management assignment at the AT&T Bell Labs location in Naperville. Again taking risk, I made a switch and has learned a great deal from the Masters of Quality Management like Dr. Deming and Dr. Juran.

Looking back, I can reflect that the choices I made and risks I took, has served me well. I received best education in chemical engineering and then branched out in management discipline. This solid educational background allowed me to make valuable contributions in corporate,  academic, professional, and non-profit sectors.

Now let us talk about failure. We can learn from Thomas A. Edison and I quote, "I have not failed, I have just found 10,000 ways that won't work." We all remember the First Inaugural Address by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, “The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself.” As a human being, we all have some fear of failure. However, when we undertake any task, it is better to fail early, learn from the failure, and then succeed faster. This formula applies well to all innovative and creative work.

I would welcome your thoughts on risk taking, fear of failure, and innovation.

The 4 Ps of Project Productivity

I want to share my personal observations regarding project productivity from managing various professional and personal projects.

Project Productivity is a multiplier of the following four factors:

1. Planning - Ten percent excellent planning including all project team members is critical to start the project on a sound footing.
2. Promotion - Continually share the value of your project with your team, department, and organization. 
3. Personal Touch - Roll up your sleeves and add value by executing your items flawlessly for the project.
4. Perseverance - Once the project goals are set, persist until the project is successfully completed.

If any one of the factors is trending downward, the overall project productivity will go down, as these factors work in parallel.

In summary, Project Productivity = Planning x Promotion x Personal Touch x Perseverance

I welcome your observations and thoughts for project productivity.

My definition of Quality

From my years of experience as a producer and user of products and services, I have realized that quality is best defined by an user of a product and/or service. When an user experiences a quality transaction, he/she will ask for more of it.

Quality is not just the small "q", or the performance. Quality is a multiplier of Performance (q), Cost (C), and Schedule (S). The big Q is equal to q x C x S. Think of q, C, and S as three legs of a stool. For a stable stool, all three legs must be firmly balanced. I will also add that quality as perceived by a consumer is the quality of Total Experience in the context of big Q.

Let me share some recent experience during my travels in India. My wife and I were on a sightseeing tour of Rajasthan, a western State of India. Our first driver Sanjay was extremely knowledgeable about places we were visiting and gave us the best experience for the first 12 days. Unfortunately, for the last 2 1/2 day of the tour, a new driver was assigned. He was less knowledgeable about the places we were visiting and we did not experience the same level of performance provided by the first driver. Sanjay exceeded our expectations (quality experience) while the second driver did not even meet our expectations (non-quality experience).

I have another example from the hospitality side. After staying at various palaces in Rajasthan (Udaipur, Jaisalmer, Jodhpur, and Jaipur) we arrived at the Taj Gateway Hotel in Agra. We were delighted to experience fabulous service from Taj's hospitality. All transactions at Taj were of highest quality and exceeded our expectations. As a result of this positive experience, we are more likely to stay at Taj Hotels in our future tours.

In summary, when we create a product/service, we need to keep in mind user's perspectives and requirements. Then provide best experience while delivering our product/service. If we can do this consistently, then we can delight our customers.

I welcome your definition of quality.

Going Beyond the Traditional Quality Function

Quality is a common denominator in all walks of life. Quality is synonymous to Excellence.

In my 37 years of professional experience, I have learned the importance of Big Q. The Big Q is a multiplier of quality (q) x cost (C) x schedule (S): Q = q x C x S. Traditionally, quality professionals focus their attention on small "q" or performance (processes, systems, metrics, etc.). However, the quality professionals need to expand their horizons.

Let us begin with the Project Management. Research shows that on an average only 20% of the projects are successful (i.e. they meet performance, cost, and schedule metrics as initially planned). When we dig deeper, we find that the project failures are attributed to lack of five crucial conversations: planning around facts, faithful to the project management process, project sponsors providing support, honestly assessing progress and risks, and all team members pulling their weight. When quality professionals are involved as either a Project Leader or Project Team members, she/he must ensure that all five crucial conversations take place, ensuring excellence in Project Management.

Next, we explore the Change Management. The Sustainable Change Management can be achieved as a result of Enlightened Leadership, Great Project Management, and Excellent Talent Management. The quality professionals are well versed with the discipline of leadership, project management, and employee engagement. They can add great value in managing change and sustaining the gains for a longer term. 

In the Supply Chain Management, the critical aspects are Supply Chain Strategy, Planning, and Operation. One need to address the Six Key Drivers to achieve supply chain excellence. They are: Facility, Inventory, Transportation, Sourcing, Pricing, and Information. When we overlay the quality discipline with the supply chain management, we can have a dynamite situation to achieve Supply Chain Excellence. In the global world, managing supply chain is crucial and quality professionals have a big role to play.

Let us explore the Quality of Life. The quality professionals are well positioned to contribute to improving the quality of life for everyone in an organization using the ISO 26000 Standards (Social Responsibility).

In summary, quality professionals need to approach the world with open eyes and open arms to seek out opportunities and add value. When quality professionals execute their roles and responsibilities with sincerity, they will make this world a little better place, than we inherited it.

I welcome your thoughts on this important topic.

Fast Quality

With advances in technology the rate of change is accelerating at a rapid pace. Real challenge is to keep pace with rapid changes and ensure fast quality to meet or exceed customer expectations.

One of the way to achieve fast quality is to remove clutter and reduce complexity from the system. Let us redefine the KISS principle as "Keep It Simple System". To this end, we need to critically look at systems and processes. Use the Supplier-Input-Process-Output-Customer (SIPOC) diagram to capture processes "as is" and identify all the bottlenecks.Then embark on a journey of continuous improvement. Remember to keep customer requirements in mind. Otherwise, lot of activities are happening, but it does not add value to customers.

I want to share an interesting case from the ASQ Certification Process. To give you the context, I took the ASQ Certified Quality Engineer (CQE) Exam in December 1988. At that time the promised result notification interval was 8 weeks. To my dismay, I received my results in 13 weeks. Working at AT&T Bell Laboratories as an Internal Quality Consultant, I decided to volunteer for the ASQ Certification Board. I joined in 1989 for a five-year term. In 1990, we began a journey of continuous improvement for the Certification Process. We formed a small Process Management Team and used AT&T's Process Quality Management and Improvement (PQMI) Guidelines and Motorola's Cycle-Time Reduction methodology.

After all the bottlenecks from the Certification Process were identified and remedied, the exam result notification interval dropped from 13 weeks in 1988 to 3 weeks in 1993. Now fast forward to 2012 ... the current exam result notification interval is around 1 week. For further details about this cycle-time reduction case, refer to the November 1993 Quality Progress article "ASQC Certification Committee Practices What It Preaches" (pages 99-103), co-authored by M. K. Vora, S. M. Harthun, and R. G. Kingen.

In summary, basic quality tools and techniques when deployed systematically will help us achieve Fast Quality.

I welcome your thoughts on this topic.

Culture of Quality & Value of Feelings to Customer

Quality culture is the collective behavior of all employees within an organization. It is formed by the organization's vision, mission, values, and individual beliefs. Quality culture will affect the way employees and groups interact with each other, with clients, and with stakeholders. It provides set of shared mental models that guide interpretation and action in organizations by defining appropriate behavior for a variety of situations.

Quality culture is shaped and nurtured by enlightened leadership. Leaders walk the talk and followers take clue from their leaders' actions. When all employees are engaged to serve their customers, both internal and external, then the organization is ready to create real value for all its stakeholders.

As we know, the mission of an organization is to serve its customers. It calls for understanding needs and wants of customers and managing their expectations. Employee encounters create feelings and experience for customers. When an employee delivers positive experience, customers will come back for more, as it creates positive feelings with customers.

Let me share some of my positive and negative experiences and feelings as a customer.

On the positive side I want to share two examples:
1). Twenty years ago we bought a Lexus automobile from McGrath Lexus in Westmont, Illinois. Over two decades, I have very positive experience with the dealership's service. With great service from Casey Komosa and Ruben Pesante, I have never been stranded on the road. This Lexus dealership epitomizes their motto of "Pursuit of Perfection" in all their dealings with their customers.

2). More recent example is from the Loyola Center for Health at Burr Ridge, Illinois. Due to a freak accident, I had a fracture on my left hand wrist. With outstanding care from Dr. Michael Bednar, an orthopedic surgeon, my fracture has healed and he recommended physical therapy. David Spear, Kim Esposito, and Kristin Malone, my occupational therapists have worked their magic over the last two plus months to make my hand fully functional. My experience is extremely positive and I have deep admiration for care givers at the Loyola University Health System.

On the negative side, I also want to share two examples:
1). In early 1980, we bought a riding snow thrower from a reputed company. We had an extreme slope for our driveway and the riding snow thrower with chains was an incorrect application. We had to return the snow thrower immediately and I had to settle for snow shovels. In this experience, the sales person  was too eager to sell me a wrong product.

2). In early 1970s, as a student I had opened an account at one of the most reputed bank in downtown Chicago. On occasions, I would visit the bank during lunch time and always encountered long delays due to tellers out for lunch and inadequate staffing to properly serve the customers. I realized this bank is not where I need to keep my account, and hence opened a new account at another bank with better customer service. Within few few short years, my original bank filed for bankruptcy and got closed. If you do not take care of your customers, then customers would leave you.

I welcome your comments regarding quality culture and customer feelings and experience.

Social Responsibility and Quality

Organizations around the globe are becoming more conscious about Social Responsibility (SR). 

The Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence in Leadership category focuses on how organizations fulfill their Social Responsibilities. The SR is about achieving the Triple Bottom Line - Economic (ISO 9000), Environmental (ISO 14000), and Social (ISO 26000) leading to Sustainable Development.  


Quality plays a critical role in achieving SR. Quality tools have helped organizations around the world to develop better products and services through compliance to ISO 9000 and ISO 14000 Standards. For SR, organizations can use 7 Quality Management Tools, 7 Quality Control Tools and SR Audits. The American Society for Quality (ASQ) has a reservoir of knowledge on quality tools and techniques. 


ASQ has been highlighting Quality for Life stories on quality professionals making a difference at work, in their personal lives, and through volunteer efforts. To learn about these stories, visit:
http://www4.asq.org/qualityforlife/volunteer-stories/. 


I have been personally involved at the Blind Foundation for India (BFI) since 1989 to serve over 15 million blinds in India which accounts for 1/3rd of the world's blind population in India
(www.blindfoundation.org). The BFI  mission is to prevent and cure blindness and educate and rehabilitate permanently blind people in India. Read the Quality for Life story entitled "Out of Darkness into Light" at: http://www4.asq.org/qualityforlife/volunteer-stories/out-of-darkness-into-light-1.html. 


BFI projects address the health care issue and make blind individuals self sufficient through education and vocational training. Instead of these blind people becoming burden to their family and society, they can lead productive life. Greater effort is spent on prevention of blindness among youngsters through timely eye sight checkups in schools, dispensing necessary eye drops, Vitamin A, providing glasses, and administering Measles vaccination. After all "an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure". 


With limited resources on this planet earth, it is time we all commit to SR at individual, family, organization, society, national, and global level. People's prosperity depends on how well we take care of the planet earth.


Are we here adding more value to the planet earth than taking out during our life time?


I welcome your your thoughts on Social Responsibility and Quality.