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The Essential Deming: Leadership Principles from the Father of Quality
An indispensable management guide for applying the theories of one of the world's most influential figures in quality control--W. Edwards Deming, the "High Prophet of Quality" ("The New York Times")
"The Essential W. Edwards Deming" is a collection of articles, excerpts, case studies, and other influential writings that reveal how Deming's ideas evolved over time and show how he worked through problems and challenges many people in his profession previously considered unsolvable.
Organized by theme, the book's covers such topics as the consequences of focusing on short-term goals, the problems with delegating quality, why "not" to focus too much on the bottom line, how to treat a business as a system, and eight misuses of statistics.
Joyce Orsini is a professor of management at Fordham University and the Director of Fordham's Deming Scholars Program.
Diana Deming Cahill, a retired elementary classroom teacher, accompanied her father, W. Edwards Deming, at numerous public and private seminars and consulting sessions, classes, and meetings at New York University and at companies in the United States, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Australia, and South Africa.
"The Essential W. Edwards Deming" is a collection of articles, excerpts, case studies, and other influential writings that reveal how Deming's ideas evolved over time and show how he worked through problems and challenges many people in his profession previously considered unsolvable.
Organized by theme, the book's covers such topics as the consequences of focusing on short-term goals, the problems with delegating quality, why "not" to focus too much on the bottom line, how to treat a business as a system, and eight misuses of statistics.
Joyce Orsini is a professor of management at Fordham University and the Director of Fordham's Deming Scholars Program.
Diana Deming Cahill, a retired elementary classroom teacher, accompanied her father, W. Edwards Deming, at numerous public and private seminars and consulting sessions, classes, and meetings at New York University and at companies in the United States, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Australia, and South Africa.
336 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
February 24, 2014
This time I got my hands on the book The Essential Deming: Leadership Principles from the Father of Quality. I have to admit that I wasn't really excited to read the book. Deming's thoughts have been coming up from so many different directions, that I wanted to give him a shot. I'm glad I did, his thoughts were marvelous.
This book isn't really a book and neither it is written by Deming. This book is a collection of Deming's writings, personal notes and speeches from throughout his career. It goes through all the main thought Deming was talking about in his books and his teachings. It tells those in a bit shorter format, but I think it was enough for me.
The book goes quite far back to 1950's and 1960's in telling what has been the problems with companies back then. Strangely the problems haven't really changed that much from those years. Of course many aspects have changed, but the underlying problems are the same. Also many of the solution proposals hopefully suit to current organizations as well.
I mark to books pages I will come back later for reference or future investigation. From the books I've read this might have had most markings done by me. There were quite a few good thoughts and sentences that will come handy in the future.
I have to admit that Deming's thought were not totally strange to me. I've read those from multiple sources beforehand, but this was the first time I read his own words. That might have helped me a bit on understanding this book. It's not difficult book to read, but it needs some thinking to understand.
It was an excellent book and I enjoyed it. Even though it's old, thoughts are valid and valuable. This is a book which many if not all the the people who care about their organizations improvement should read.
This review was originally published in my blog - here
This book isn't really a book and neither it is written by Deming. This book is a collection of Deming's writings, personal notes and speeches from throughout his career. It goes through all the main thought Deming was talking about in his books and his teachings. It tells those in a bit shorter format, but I think it was enough for me.
The book goes quite far back to 1950's and 1960's in telling what has been the problems with companies back then. Strangely the problems haven't really changed that much from those years. Of course many aspects have changed, but the underlying problems are the same. Also many of the solution proposals hopefully suit to current organizations as well.
I mark to books pages I will come back later for reference or future investigation. From the books I've read this might have had most markings done by me. There were quite a few good thoughts and sentences that will come handy in the future.
I have to admit that Deming's thought were not totally strange to me. I've read those from multiple sources beforehand, but this was the first time I read his own words. That might have helped me a bit on understanding this book. It's not difficult book to read, but it needs some thinking to understand.
It was an excellent book and I enjoyed it. Even though it's old, thoughts are valid and valuable. This is a book which many if not all the the people who care about their organizations improvement should read.
This review was originally published in my blog - here
December 25, 2018
The book is a collection of Deming’s different written and oral pieces. Therefore it repeats itself and tells a lot of unnecessary details that have currently no value. Having this said, the bits of knowledge that can be extracted from the book are quite valuable. Indeed, the book made me re-think the quality assurance process in my own project.
January 26, 2023
I enjoyed this book but will have to read it again. The text was not something I could implement all at once and I missed many of the points I'm sure. Maybe people should act as Deming suggest but the thoughts seem idealist and sadly not how people behave. However, maybe his point is that a good system can over come all. I agree with many of his points but question what happens in cases where greed or other motives come into play. He seems like good man with good intentions interested in helping society as a whole. I agree with his general philosophy and will keep his arguments in mind.
June 3, 2021
What should have been a series of awesome anecdotes on how Deming resurrected the Japanese industrial base from 1950-1960, instead became quite stodgy and bogged down with repetitive detail. His message on quality and the need for it to be driven by the top is a worthy philosophy and is unfortunately drowned out by too much noise from the rest of this collection. I recommend you start with 'out of the crisis' instead
March 29, 2022
Too generic. Didn't offer anything practical or concrete. The main argument is that quality starts from the top. It's never defined what "quality" is the repetitive message just becomes a generic platitude that sounds good but doesn't really mean anything.
This book is a collection of various essays from the author. Perhaps his other books offer more substance.
This book is a collection of various essays from the author. Perhaps his other books offer more substance.
June 16, 2022
Something about a business philosopher who started in quantum physics, engineering, and ends up shaping business for several nations that is akin of legendary heroic tails.
Any mid-level manager benefits from a foray into this humans contribution.
Any mid-level manager benefits from a foray into this humans contribution.
June 15, 2017
it's a testament of concepts that are widely used by corporations - though insulting in some ways to American corporate board.
August 17, 2017
Deming's great ideas are here, but his horrible writing style is not improved by the editing.
January 26, 2018
Dense but nice for reference
December 7, 2019
Overrated. An obviously brilliant man of his day, however, many of his thoughts and concepts are no longer completely relevant and a bit outdated.
April 2, 2023
A great overview of Deming and his ideas.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 8, 2024
A couple good tips here and there, but I mostly speed-read through this and to bullet point notes.
June 14, 2021
6/9/21 audiobook update:
Dr. Orsini does an excellent job of reviewing and organizing many of Dr. Deming's less statistical papers. These papers are a series of writings throughout his career but are primarily focused in the 1980s and 1990s. Through these papers, you can see that he lives his life with the consistency of purpose. The consistency of his messages doesn’t change much through his writings.
I believe, if alive today, Dr. Deming would be a leading blogger. He used so many methods for communicating his teachings. I think he would have been enamored with the ability to reach a wide range through blogging. Rather than reaching 100’s through memos, lectures, and letters, he would reach 1000’s.
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8/23/14
I loved this book. It is well organized, well-edited, and a wealth of knowledge.
A collection of Deming's thoughts in bite-sized pieces. I am a very slow reader and I think that was one of the things I liked best about this book, you could read a couple of letters or essays and pick right up two or three days later where you left off with another essay.
Although I have only read one other Deming book, Out of the Crisis, I think this may be the most definitive collection of work and it is definitely deserving of the title the Essential Deming!
Dr. Orsini does an excellent job of reviewing and organizing many of Dr. Deming's less statistical papers. These papers are a series of writings throughout his career but are primarily focused in the 1980s and 1990s. Through these papers, you can see that he lives his life with the consistency of purpose. The consistency of his messages doesn’t change much through his writings.
I believe, if alive today, Dr. Deming would be a leading blogger. He used so many methods for communicating his teachings. I think he would have been enamored with the ability to reach a wide range through blogging. Rather than reaching 100’s through memos, lectures, and letters, he would reach 1000’s.
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8/23/14
I loved this book. It is well organized, well-edited, and a wealth of knowledge.
A collection of Deming's thoughts in bite-sized pieces. I am a very slow reader and I think that was one of the things I liked best about this book, you could read a couple of letters or essays and pick right up two or three days later where you left off with another essay.
Although I have only read one other Deming book, Out of the Crisis, I think this may be the most definitive collection of work and it is definitely deserving of the title the Essential Deming!
September 2, 2015
This book was okay, but I don't recommend it as a treatment of the larger theory that Deming espoused. If you actually want to understand the ideas he promoted I think you're better off looking at "Out of the Crisis" and "A System of Profound Knowledge" before picking up this book.
If you've already read his other works, this book is quite interesting as it fills in some gaps and fleshes some of those ideas out a bit more with letters and essays and other varied writings of Deming's. The title is a bit misleading however, as it suggests that perhaps you might be able to read this and get the essentials.
If all you want is to know about Deming and his ideas, I suppose that's true. It's a decent synopsis. But if you want to understand and implement his ideas, you need the full picture.
If you've already read his other works, this book is quite interesting as it fills in some gaps and fleshes some of those ideas out a bit more with letters and essays and other varied writings of Deming's. The title is a bit misleading however, as it suggests that perhaps you might be able to read this and get the essentials.
If all you want is to know about Deming and his ideas, I suppose that's true. It's a decent synopsis. But if you want to understand and implement his ideas, you need the full picture.
June 1, 2016
Sometimes a great book does not need to be a great read, and this is one of those cases. The book is made up of notes, speeches, reports, letters that Deming wrote during his efforts in bringing statistical based managing tools to the world. The effect that this would have on Japan competitivity are slightly short of amazing (although one can also ask what happened after 1990).
Although a bit repetitive the book makes clear what Deming's management philosophy was about and what his point of view was on what would need to be done to turn around the US competitive funk (would have loved to hear what he thinks of the current situation).
An interesting book for the right audience, and that is anyone interested in business and productivity.
Although a bit repetitive the book makes clear what Deming's management philosophy was about and what his point of view was on what would need to be done to turn around the US competitive funk (would have loved to hear what he thinks of the current situation).
An interesting book for the right audience, and that is anyone interested in business and productivity.
August 21, 2017
This book is exceptional. Deming brings a savvy, in-depth understanding of business. And he's a welcome change from the shallowness of thinking about business in most business books today.
This collection offers far more than the usual "article extended to 80,000 words" that seems to power the business book industry while offering less insight than it should.
And be prepared. For someone well versed in statistics, Deming rises above them to focus on what really matters in business - letting the stats be subservient to the goal.
This collection offers far more than the usual "article extended to 80,000 words" that seems to power the business book industry while offering less insight than it should.
And be prepared. For someone well versed in statistics, Deming rises above them to focus on what really matters in business - letting the stats be subservient to the goal.
August 28, 2014
Pulled out some good information but the book is edited in a terrible fashion. It is basically a collection of his previous writings and articles. Several sections are repeated throughout the book. I found it very distracting and difficult to follow at times. But, I was challenged by some of the content.
October 30, 2015
Turned on to this by videos of Brian Cantrill referencing him when talking about performance reports within large organizations and how mostly they are terrible and flawed ideas built on faulty reasoning. This book tells you why and gives insight into productivity and management. W. Edwards Deming is credited with helping Japan realize the post WWII economic boom.
September 3, 2015
Great content but probably could have benefited from better editing. The concepts and ideas behind the theories of Deming are presented in a simple practical manner. Probably 15-20 key guiding principles to be extracted from this book.
January 14, 2013
If you want a Harvard MBA, well here ya go!
Basic statistical knowledge is required to understand the book, but just use Wikipedia to better understand concepts like the Taguchi Loss Principle.
Basic statistical knowledge is required to understand the book, but just use Wikipedia to better understand concepts like the Taguchi Loss Principle.
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January 11, 2015legendary
February 2, 2016
This is a great collection of Deming's principles and writings.
February 17, 2013
For class...
Read
April 2, 2013khkh
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews