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Short biographies of several gurus are presented on http://www.murtongroup.com/qgurus.htm. Each biography is followed by information about that person’s theories and tools.

Information about gurus and other personalities in quality, as well as a discussion forum, are found on http://www.qualitygurus.com

The W. Edwards Deming Institute, http://www.deming.org, was founded in 1993 by Deming. The site has information about Deming and the institute, the criteria for the Deming prize, and a newsletter. The site offers videos and books about Deming for purchase.

A short biography of Joseph Juran is on the website of the Carlson School of Management: http://www.csom.umn.edu/page1275.aspx

A New Zealand website offers case studies and examples from organizations that have improved using the criteria of the Malcolm Baldrige Quality Award. The site also offers a primer on Baldrige, worksheets, a presentation on how to do a self assessment and tips on writing the award application. Please visit http://www.baldrigeplus.com.

The Society for Leadership of Change sponsors events, publishes a quarterly online newsletter, and has web resources including a change management bookstore, links, white papers and articles, a forum, a career center and “ask an expert” service. One year of membership is free. Please visit http://www.theslc.org.

The Vietnam News Service reported May 8, 2006 that Vietnam Quality Association of HCM City (VQAC) was founded on Friday May 5, with its first 330 corporate and individual members.

The mission of the association is to support members in applying and improving quality management systems.

Professor Dao Van Luong, Director of the HCM city Department of Science and Technology, reports that approximately 3,000 organizations in Vietnam have quality management certifications. The goal is, by 2010, to increase to 5,000 the number of businesses in Vietnam with quality management certifications. HCM city supports businesses and government in implementing quality management.

An increasing number of industries are being governed by standards specific to those industries. In 2005 the QPI SIG assembled information about many of these standards. The list follows. (more…)

The Gartner Group plans a Business Process Management Summit June 27 to 28 2006 in London.

In January 2006 the Gartner CIO Survey showed Business Process Improvement is seen by CIOs as the number one business priority in 2006.

Therefore Gartner will be holding its first European BPM Summit, as a follow-on event to the American summit in June 2005.

According to Gartner, BPM is seen as a management discipline that can “subsume” Six Sigma and Lean techniques. Organizations new to BPM should implement initiatives across the organization rather than in “silos” at a tactical level. BPM helps organizations compete on the basis of superior business process, leading to reduction in inefficiency, errors, duplication of standards and work, complexity, and risk and improved factual reporting, agility, alignment, productivity, and compliance.

The scope of the summit is reported with registration information on the Gartner site.

The effect of process improvement on innovation is a frequent topic of discussion. The Wharton School published an article on the subject. Do you have any other references or experience in this area? How can communication contribute to continuing improvement and fostering innovation? Please leave a comment.

The article is:

“Do Process Management Programs Discourage Innovation?” Published November 2005. Link current, April 2006.

Members express high interest in standards, and in December, 2005 STC’s Intercom magazine included an article by Whitney Quesenbery on getting involved in setting publications standards: “Why get involved in standards (and what you need to know about the standards process” (pages 36-39).

In June 2005, members identified a website that describes the methodology used by Standards Australia.

The STC Forum has additional information on standards setting in business. If you have more information on how standards are set, please leave a comment.