Quotes about W. Edwards Deming

3 Sourced Quotes

Two of my favourite current management writers are Americans – Clayton Christensen and Peter Senge. My all-time favourite gurus are Peter Drucker, who became a greatly admired friend, and W. Edwards Deming. The thing that set these people apart from many other business commentators is that they didn't propose any all - encompassing theories, they simply told it like it is.
The fact is that life cannot be summarised as a simple set of rules; it's far too complicated for that and it's always changing. Unfortunately, all-encompassing panaceas do seem to be popular and certainly sell books, which is why I so value the objectivity of thought that each of these people brought to the debate.

The "patron saint" of Japanese quality control, ironically, is an American named W. Edwards Deming, who was virtually unknown in his own country until his ideas of quality control began to make such a big impact on Japanese companies.

The legendary statistical consultant W. Edwards Deming,... has called the system by which merit is appraised and rewarded 'the most powerful inhibitor to quality and productivity in the Western world'... it is simply unfair to the extent that employees are held responsible for what are, in reality, systemic factors that are beyond their control.