Joseph M. Juran Medal
The Joseph M. Juran Medal is presented to the individual who exhibits distinguished performance in a sustained role as an organizational leader: personally practicing the key principles of quality and demonstrating breakthrough management.
Juran Medal presented to John J. Hudiburg
“For distinguished leadership and service in promoting and executing the principles of quality management as chairman and chief executive officer of Florida Power & Light leading to the achievement of the Deming Prize from Japan; and in recognition of his pivotal role in creating and establishing the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award”
Acceptance Speech:
I am very pleased to receive the Juran Medal. I have been retired now for over ten years so it came as something of a surprise when I was notified that I had been awarded the Juran Medal. Dr. Juran and I worked together on a number of occasions. The most memorable was when we went to Congress and testified in favor of establishing a National Quality Award for the United States. This effort spanned a number of years and trips to Congress. The end result was the Malcolm Baldridge Award.
It is good to see so many old friends and colleagues. I hope to talk to many more of you before Joan and I leave to go back home. It is nice to be here with Dr. Kano. He was one of our counselors when we were installing TQM at Florida Power & Light Company. We couldn’t have done it without him! Another award recipient today is Dr. Akao. We borrowed heavily from the work of Dr Akao in the “Quality Function Deployment” area. It seems like old times.
In the time I have left I want to talk a bit about the role of the CEO in the area of quality improvement. To set the stage I want to cite some current data from the April Consumer Report magazine. In it they gave their 2007 ratings for new automobiles.
Based on their customer satisfaction surveys they noted the best 45 cars. Of these, 26 were Japanese, one Korean, 11 European, and just 7 American. They also ranked the 28 worst cars.
Based on owner/customer satisfaction, 23 were American, 4 Japanese, and 1 European. Moreover, of the 4 Japanese, 3 were Mazdas, which is partly owned by Ford. This is sad, and it is pitiful. For over 20 years this has been the situation and it just goes on and on. I am not extolling the Japanese nor am I picking on the auto industry, it is just one example. The same could be said about many other American companies as well. I am sure the auto companies have many excuses, some of them maybe valid. But the market is ruthless; the customer wants the best value for his hard earned dollar, not excuses.
For this situation to improve, the CEO of each company has to make it happen. Now of course, the CEO can’t do it alone. This will ultimately involve the whole organization. Fifteen years ago when I wrote my book on our experience with TQM at FPL, I cited three other examples of companies that had partly installed quality systems. I urged them on and wished them success. Sadly, when those companies got new CEOs, their efforts slowed, then stopped. One of the three just announced massive layoffs, the other two are out of business and no longer exist. If you are facing tough competition, tentative or halfway quality doesn’t get the job done; start and stop quality, phony quality, and delegated quality don’t either.
If you are the principal Quality professional at your company you have many important responsibilities. The greatest of these is to teach your CEO of the benefits of Total Quality Management. You need to show them what others are doing with quality improvement. You know better than anyone the benefits to be realized if the CEO will really learn TQM and implement it. There are many organizations that have done so and are prospering. TQM is not secret. Most leading TQM companies are proud of what they have done and are happy to show it to your CEO and others. Every chance you get, urge and cajole the CEO to implement more and more of the TQM system. The future of the organization may depend on your success, so don’t be shy. Be an apostle for quality. The job you save may be your own. Every organization has some energetic go-getters, enlist them as allies. Obtain some success stories. Make sure that the CEO hears about them. Push, push, and good luck.
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