LET THE DEMING APPROACH HELP

 IN BUSINESS & PUBLIC SERVICE

Dr.P.K.Dutta

Public Service Executives and Business Executives come from the same society, especially from the middle class. Therefore, both are products of the same system and background, culture, compulsions, education, customs, prejudices, biases, beliefs and superstitions,  more or less to the same extent. Therefore, whatever be the mindset of the business executives is equally likely to be seen in the Public Service officers too. Deming’s approach originally developed rapidly in Japan mostly in the areas of commerce and business. For, in 1950, the label “Made in Japan” was an international joke, indicating poor quality and cheap products. You may recall Raj Kapoor’s song, “Mera Joota Hai Japani…” in his film “Shree 420” made in the very early period of the ‘50s.

However, Japan had no other way to survive the aftermath of the World War II, but selling industrial products in the discriminating world-markets. They were at the brink of a huge calamity. She was rather poor in natural resources, highly earth quake prone, volcanic soil mostly unfit for large scale farming, high density of population and a sense of gloom after the two atom bombs in 1945. Then they invited Dr.W.E.Deming(1950), followed by Dr.Joseph Juran(1954) from the USA to help them out, the outcome of which is now a history.

It is important to note that the Japanese Government bureaucrats also adapted the Deming’s approach. Because they believed they belonged to the same society, a Japanese society! Thus, a strong symbiotic relationship between commerce, business and the bureaucracy could thrive to sustain the resurrection process and survive world wide by becoming a powerful economic powerhouse within five years of accepting Deming as their mentor.

We need to do the same in a much wider scale and as quickly as possible, as ours is a vast country with history of poor implementation. Our myriad cultural traits, regionalism, illiteracy, corruption and divisiveness made things more difficult. Yet, we must succeed here and now. The alternative could be a terrible scenario, especially in a globalised era.

In my humble opinion, first thing first--that we the business and government executives, teachers and students alike must learn seriously about the basic Deming approach, without trying to imitate after listening to make believe case studies, in the MBA class-rooms. Such imitations never worked, even though most management teachers used this technique for a long time. Next, is to internalise the scientific logic of Deming, which he called, “The System of Profound Knowledge” and undergo individual transformation. For, without individual transformation one cannot carry the necessary convictions in the others to change. One has to move from “Unconscious Incompetence” to “Unconscious Competence”, which is a never-ending process. Thus, we will keep living in the present involving continual change coming our way all the time. There cannot be any pause. Or else…!

The days of Business and Administration in the ‘Cow boy’ style of the old Wild West and Indian Feudalism are over. We must think and do things differently now. The whole society has to become by and large a middle-class society. No distinction like the upper middle-class, lower middle-class must be allowed to influence our mindset. Today, it has become a curse.

While in passing, I must mention here that somehow there is a perception, especially in the IT sector, that managing IT is based on a different paradigm and therefore, the Deming approach, which started with the manufacturing business, is not applicable to the IT business. In my humble opinion, it is a false American assumption, blindly imitated by us now. Only a bit more in depth study will help such believers to relearn, if they wished to! Someday we will discuss this later.

I have made it my job to exchange these radically newer views with people who can make the difference, if they wanted to. There will be resistance to change, I experienced; but there is no other way to make our march towards making India a sustainably happy, peaceful and prosperous country, exists in my view. We need not be a military super-power, we need not go to the moon, nor become the richest nation at any cost; but we owe it to our future generations a happy and prosperous country.

It is my mission; because I had the rare and unique privilege as an Indian of learning at the feet of the great master, Dr.W.E.Deming (1900-1993) and I vowed to him that as long as I am ambulatory I will keep trying to share my learning and experiences with the others. I know it will be a difficult journey but I owe it to my society. I believe together we can do it!

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e-mail: pulin.dutta@gmail.com