Feigenbaum Medal – Vivek Nanda

The Armand V. Feigenbaum Medal is presented to a young quality professional who has displayed outstanding characteristics of leadership, professionalism, and potential in the field of quality through achievement of significant benefit to mankind.

Feigenbaum Medal presented to Vivek Nanda - “Recognized leader in the quality profession, evidenced by enhancement of organizational maturity, institutionalization of quality management systems internationally, authorship of books and scholarly articles on quality, leadership positions in professional societies, and volunteerism.”

Acceptance Speech:

Good morning, respected members of the ASQ Board of Directors, the Awards Committee, and ladies and gentlemen.

It is indeed an honor to be chosen as the recipient of the 2006 Feigenbaum Medal. I would like to express my deepest sense of gratitude to the Awards Committee. I am particularly humbled by this award because with so many worthy candidates in the world today, the likelihood of anyone receiving this great honor is certainly very slim. 

I started my career as an operations developer at Ericsson – the Swedish telecom company. I remember my first quality task, which was to map out Ericsson’s business processes for my business unit of several thousand employees in five different countries.

I felt like the proverbial ant crawling up the elephant’s back. Much of my two years at Ericsson were spent helping the company prepare for and successfully achieve Maturity Level – 3 of the Capability Maturity Model® (CMM) – the de facto process improvement model for the IT industry. We were one of the first few companies in the world to achieve this maturity level at that time.

From there, I went to work for a variety of telecommunication companies in various roles in quality assurance. My experiences to date have provided me with an in-depth understanding of various quality standards, methods, and quality management practices at today’s leading companies.

Throughout my career, I have been driven by two factors to share my experiences with others in the quality profession: first, a desire to add to the body of knowledge on quality through research; and second, a desire to share best practices with the quality community for the collective benefit.

In December 2000, having written for various quality publications, I decided to write my first book - a book that no one had yet written - an ISO 9001:2000 implementation book for the software industry, although my wife would rather that I say that this was her idea. I was thrilled that ASQ liked my manuscript and agreed to publish the book. However, with a full-time job, my professional volunteering activities, and an active personal life as well, that initial joy was short-lived. It gave way to concern, anxiety, and then trepidation as my due date for manuscript submission approached sooner than I would have liked. Days seemed longer and nights seemed shorter – they were – as I squeezed more and more out of each day.

Two years later, I remember the joy of first holding my book in my hands – the pride and joy of those moments has only been surpassed twice in my life: when I first held my newborn son, Hersh, who just turned 3, and then my daughter, Ellora, now 9 months old.

One would think that after my first book, I would have taken a sabbatical from big writing projects. But I had other plans. I agreed to write for another publisher, who had really liked my book and approached me with a book proposal. My second book was literally a race against time as my final manuscript submission deadline after a few extensions coincided with the expected due date of our first child! In the spirit of a true quality engineer, as the final deadline approached, I resorted to more desperate measures such as keeping a daily trend chart of manuscript pages written, computing mean productivity, and taking corrective action when my output fell short of expected levels.

As I reflect upon where I am in my career today, I recognize I owe a lot of gratitude to some special individuals. First, I would like to thank Prof. Nazim Madhavji from the University of Western Ontario in Canada. Due to work and personal commitments, unfortunately, he is not able to be here today. Prof. Madhavji, who was my research supervisor at McGill University, is a resolute champion of quality himself. He has constantly encouraged and supported me to give back to the quality profession through my research, writings, professional reviewer work for ASQ and IEEE, and leadership of organizations such as the Philadelphia Software Process Improvement Network.

I would also like to thank my employer, Motorola, for providing me with excellent opportunities for quality and thought leadership. To work for an American icon that is synonymous with quality is nothing but gratifying.

This acceptance speech would certainly not be complete without a reflection on my wife, Dipti, who often reminds me of a popular saying from India – “Behind every man’s success, there is a woman’s hand.”  With all sincerity, I do recognize that a lot of the professional goals I set for myself, I wouldn’t be able to achieve if not for her tireless and loving support. She takes on more on the personal front so I can take on more on the professional front. So, Dipti, thank you.

Let me end by saying that I am absolutely committed to the advancement of quality. I pledge that I will continue to make the contributions that have brought me this recognition today.
Thank you.

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