How Would W. Edwards Deming Fare in the Globally Competitive Economy We Live in Today?

In the early 1980s, I was first exposed to the teachings of the quality gurus.  As a recent college graduate, I found what Dr. W. Edwards Deming, Joseph Juran, and Phillip Crosby professed very profound.  I was also fortunate to attend one of Deming’s 4-day Seminars in 1985.  In my bookcase, I still have the seminar material and took a ton of notes.

A few weeks ago, I hauled out the material and looked through it for the first time in nearly ten years.  I noted how a lot has changed in the world of business and the quality profession since I last looked at the material and after nearly thirty years since the seminar.  And I wondered if Deming were still alive, would he still stick inflexibly to his philosophy? Or would he, in the spirit of continual improvement, have modified aspects of it to deal with the radically different, globally competitive economy of today?

Two things stand out in my mind where Deming would have difficulty today.  First was around financial discipline which he brushed aside whenever it was asked and would not give examples. Just do this and you will be financially rewarded.  Six sigma has taught all of us the importance of financial discipline around process improvement.  We need to take care of and measure customer needs, process specifications, and the financial metrics.

Second was it was ‘his way or the highway’ of you had to follow his system to the letter of the law or else. No flexibility allowed. That was a serious flaw in his approach even to me in my mid-twenties.  It’s been years since I read some of his later writings but I don’t remember Deming changing his position on this point.  The economic situation in Japan during the last twenty years after Deming passed away might have given him a new perspective.

Personally I think Deming would have continually improved his approach.  I suspect he didn’t go over to post-war Japan with his philosophy already set in stone.  He learned what worked, made changes, and taught all of us a better way to run our businesses.