Chair's Message

For some reason, I’ve been having trouble trying to think of a topic for this message. I’m still trying to make sense of what I see as many disturbing signs regarding the current state of the quality profession and ASQ. In the latest salary survey (December Quality Progress), the job title “statistician” was intentionally omitted for the first time in my memory. What is going on? The opportunities that made statistics such an exciting career choice for me back in 1978 are neither available nor would I necessarily be led or be able to have the luxury of making the choice of an M.S. program today. Two recent articles have given me a lot of food for thought. The first is by Jim Clemmer (I highly recommend that you subscribe to his weekly “Improvement Points” through http://www.clemmer.net). Think of the first paragraph in terms of your organizations, ASQ, and the Statistics Division. Think of the second paragraph in terms of yourselves: Responsiveness to change is as important to organizations as is to people. There are two kinds of organizations in today’s world: those that are changing and those that are going out of business. The business and government graveyard is filled with the corpses of organizations that failed to respond to inevitable changes. Similarly, there are also two kinds of people: those who are changing and those who are setting themselves up to be victims of change. As the world continues to march on Volume 22, No. 1 Winter, 2003