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The Information industry is booming and
bringing all of us together. The connection is “happening” with
various networking technologies. This globalization is challenging
our language skills and redefining the business strategy of the
corporate world. Is the way we conduct business changing or is the
way we manage our business? Should industries embrace each other
more particularly engineering with information technology? Are
people targeting employers or organizations targeting employees? A
chance reading of a short and simple but a strong and powerful book
‘The Ice Cream Maker: An Inspiring Tale About Making Quality The Key
Ingredient In Everything You do’ illustrates how businesses can
instill quality into our work force/culture and into every product
that we design, build, and market. This probe led me to one of the
most enterprising authors of contemporary America, who happens to
originate from the literary capital of India – Bengal. Meet Subir
Chowdhury, the strategic thinker of the generation x business model
of America, the reason he was chosen to be the Inspirational
Michigan Indian.
In this brief interview with Anupama Gopalakrishnan on an Miindia
exclusive, Subir talks about his “passion” for the pen, the social
fabric of life and how quality should not be limited to
manufacturing, but should be embedded in an individual’s thinking
and across all geographic boundaries. Subir’s ever-flowing energy
and enthusiasm with a tireless race for higher goals clearly defines
what true success entails. Read on…
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Q: Subir, how and
where did all this begin?
Thanks to my grandfather who was a primary school teacher. From
day one, the whole concept of the pen and how powerful words
could be were instilled within me by him. The more I grew up
with him, the stronger the influence. I remember very vividly a
small game he played with me. I was always asked to choose
between a pen and a rupee. I always used to pick the rupee
because with the rupee I could buy materials. But through this
game he taught me a very valuable lesson about respecting the
pen and how the pen could actually be the means to being the
most powerful voice in the world. So, the pen was my companion
and I felt that the pen has the magic to change the world.
Q: Did you read a lot as a student?
The whole habit of reading was inculcated in me when I was in
the seventh grade. I used to take particular interest in reading
about a book and if I liked the book I used to explore about its
author. I used to get into minute details about the authors –
where they lived and what they did. I used to write to the top
authors and by the time I was 14, I was in communication with
all the big laureates of Bengali literature. The best part is
they communicated back to me. All this because of the one small
element called a “pen”... |
Subir Chowdhury is the author of
twelve books, including the international bestseller The
Power of Six Sigma, which has been translated in more
than 20 languages and has sold more than a million copies
worldwide. Chowdhury’s Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) is
the first book on the topic and is credited with
popularizing DFSS philosophy in the world. His Management
21C was selected as the Best Business Book of 1999 by
Amazon.com in U.K. and translated into more than ten
languages. His latest book titled The Ice Cream Maker
garnered praise by leaders and prestigious media like The
Washington Post, The Detroit News and has been
distributed to every honorable Member of the U.S. Congress
(Senators and House of Representatives).
Courtesy:
www.subirchowdhury.com |
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Q: You have been hailed by
Business Week as The Quality Prophet and by The New
York Times as Leading Quality Expert, and advice Fortune
500 CEOs on quality and also writing bestselling books on the same
topic. What does quality mean to you?
Quality is all about how you live with what you have. It is the
ultimate passion you have for life. It is not about success. It is
not about struggle. It is about living with whatever little you have
in peace and in happiness. My quality guru is Mother Teresa. The
reason being she symbolizes the ultimate quality through her care
for humanity. She was not born in India, but deeply rooted with
Indian culture. She was a perfectionist, which I define as ‘ultimate
quality’. She did a lot of tough work, even dug dust bins to find
lives. She and her team saved millions of lives in India and abroad.
She was a “quality” individual as she succeeded in being happy,
humble and embraced poorest and dying people all her life. She gave
someone else inspiration, peace and a smile. Even though my
professional work is known for improving process quality, but at the
end of the day it is ‘people’ quality that takes care of ‘process’
quality..
Q: How did your education at IIT shape your character?
The Indian Institute of Technology is one of the very few
institutions in India that provides opportunities for students with
all backgrounds to not only fulfill the academic dreams; but also
provides freedom to explore other talents. Just the IIT campus
culture was so exciting in my days, I hope IIT continues this
culture. What I learned in this culture, we IITians can excel on any
field if we put our mind into it. I have always embraced literary
works, whether it is fiction or not. It was on few of my IIT
friends’ insistence that Panchajanya, a Bengali literary
magazine was launched at IIT Kharagpur. Bengal forms a huge
representation in the field of literature. During my freshman years
at IIT, Kharagpur, there was no literary magazine. It took me three
years of challenging time with IIT administration to launch
Panchajanya – a name given by a famous Bengali laureate. During
the launch of this magazine was the first time the word
‘entrepreneurship’ came into existence in my life. This was also the
first time that a group of wanna-be engineers produced a true
literary work and formed an exclusive connection between literature
and engineering.
Even now, I always tell engineers: if you cannot appreciate nature
or even as simple and beautiful as a child’s smile, how could you
design a car that could be a driver’s delight?
Q: I heard this interesting story about you secured a bank loan
without any collateral within few days after landing in the United
States. How did you spring this?
I landed in the United States with $1200 in 1991 for my Graduate
studies. I had to wait for a year for the U of M scholarship and so
I decided to join the Central Michigan University to pursue my
graduate study in the field of Industrial Management. I had a
shortage of $200 for my course registration. First of America bank
(currently owned by National City) gave me the loan. It is
interesting because I got the loan without any collateral for the
single purpose of being focused and committed. I had to earn it
myself. No bank was willing to provide a loan to someone who just
entered the country. I persisted and insisted to the extent that I
also tried to pledge my IIT certificate to the bank manager to keep
until I return back the $200 loan. Well, the official did not budge
but eventually she gave me the loan as she told me that she couldn’t
sleep that night due to my convincing arguments for the loan.
Q: Tell us about your first book writing venture? How it all
started?
After my graduate degree, I joined GM in Saginaw, Michigan and my
first assignment was in the field of quality. At GM, I used to get
into a lot of troubles as I used to question everything and had
tremendous passion to improve as many processes as possible in a
short time. My passion to improve GM was not perceived properly by
its middle managers. So I got involved with the non-profit
professional societies like ASQ (American Society for Quality), SME
(Society of Manufacturing Engineers) and SAE (Society of Automotive
Engineers).
 During
my voluntary works at these professional societies, I honed my
leadership skills. At that time, QS-9000 was a hot topic, just
introduced, no materials were available, neither any book was
published on the topic. At the same time, I had an opportunity to
edit the conference proceedings of the first QS-9000 conference
organized by ASQ. During this conference, a business editor of a
publishing company McGraw Hill requested me to write the first
book on QS-9000. No information was available on the subject. So, I
was little shaky to take the project as it will be my first book.
Once I committed to write the book, I would definitely want it to be
endorsed by all eminent Quality gurus prior to its publication. And
it happened the way I wanted it. My first book QS-9000 Pioneers:
Registered Companies Share Their Strategies for Success was
endorsed by the industry’s best quality experts like Philip B.
Crosby, Genichi Taguchi, and J.D. Power III. I had my book foreword
written by Quality Guru Armand V. Feigenbaum. Every case study
featured in the book was also reviewed by the renowned faculty from
Harvard Business School and MIT’s Sloan Management School. The book
was published in 1996.
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Q: You were only 29 at the time when
you first met Dr. Taguchi, how did you manage to impress him?
If you are a human being, anybody is touchable. It is in your mind,
what you want to achieve. I continuously believed in it.
 I
took the endorsement as a challenge for my first book. I questioned
the gurus: is it the work or me that you are concerned about? In the
field of quality, this was the first book literally brought all
living quality giants together to review the works and later
endorsed by all. At the ASQ Annual Quality congress, J.D. Power III,
Dr. G. Taguchi, Philip Crosby and others flew down to Chicago to
launch my first book. Once the book was launched, instantly I became
an authority in the field of QS-9000. It was the quality of work
that I believed in. I cared about the quality of the book so much
that I refined manuscripts until all these gurus agreed to endorse
the book.
 The
compliments poured. “I understand QS-9000 better just because I read
Subir’s book”, said Dave Power, founder of J.D. Power and
Associates. Dr. Taguchi exclaimed, “I have written 40 books but I
have not witnessed the grand launch of any ‘Quality’ book like
this”. Dr. Taguchi expressed interest in writing a book with me on
the same book launching ceremony. I was dumbstruck, I was in tears
with joy. My second book was going to be with the man who I
considered was the god father of Quality Engineering. I had to work
15-20 hours a day. Within three years of our first meeting, at MIT I
launched my second book Robust Engineering: Learn How to Boost
Quality While Reducing Costs & Time to Market co-authored with
Dr. Genichi Taguchi and his son Shin Taguchi.
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Did you know?
Subir Chowdhury
received the U.S. Congressional Certificate of Commendation
presented by the Honorable 105th U.S. Congress for outstanding
contributions to the U.S. automotive industry.
After distributing The Ice Cream Maker to all Members of
Congress (House and Senate), Subir Chowdhury was invited to
Washington, DC for formal recognition on the House Floor by
Congressman Thaddeus McCotter on March 15-16, 2006. There was
also a reception held in honor of Chowdhury at The Library of
Congress, Member’s Reading Room, where Congressional Members,
staff members and guests spoke with Chowdhury about giving
meaning to the phrase “Made in America”. |
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Q: Share with us your success from
the field of quality engineering to the field of management in
premier business schools.
In 1997, Dr. Taguchi and Dave Power shaped my thinking and
encouraged me to quit GM so that my voice could be heard on a global
level by all types of organizations. I joined American Supplier
Institute (ASI) a company that offers unique services through
education, training, and application of Quality, Engineering, and
Process Innovation.
 At
ASI I started my consulting career. Within six years, I founded ASI
Consulting Group, LLC (www.asiusa.com)
a premium consulting organization in the field of process innovation
and world leader on Design For Six Sigma. My consulting with senior
leadership at various organizations at very early professional
career motivated me to explore the field of management.
During the same time (1997), I was reading a book titled ‘Leader of
the Future’ and encouraged by it to explore the field of pure
management. Within a year, I became a Peter Drucker fan and doing
hours of research in the field of management and reached out to the
eminent thinkers around the globe to learn more about management. I
was trying figure out the difference between Quality and Management.
The business schools normally do not teach quality, but emphasize
pure management. I knew that I was well respected in the field of
quality, but in the field of management I was still unknown. One
fine day, I woke up and I confided an idea with my wife who had
management education. My idea was to design a book in which I will
bring all the eminent management thinkers from top business schools
to predict the future of management in the 21st century. I wanted to
lead the project such that I may able to work with these thought
leaders very closely to understand management better. So, I asked
for her support. She mentioned that it was very tough, very
challenging but achievable. In 1999, Management 21C was
published. The book was a response to all those curious about how
workplace institutions and management practices will change in these
changing times.
Q: When you approached most management gurus to co-author with
you, how did they react?
Well, a lot of people did not know me. It is natural for people to
react differently when they do not know your name or work. “Who the
hell are you?" was the first question from most. So, I have to work
hard to convince each thought leader to focus on what I was bringing
to the table rather concentrating on ‘me’. As days rolled in, they
accepted me and supported the project wholeheartedly. Management
21C voted the Best Business Book of 1999 by amazon.co.uk.
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"If you read only one management book
this year, make it Management 21 C",
says John A. Quelch, dean, London Business School. |
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Q: An honorary doctorate for all your
accomplishments, how did it feel?
Felt great, it meant even more to my dad. Dad wanted me to be a
physician. In fact, I went to medical school for six months in 1985
before going to IIT. My father always wanted me to get the highest
education as possible. So, after finishing my master’s degree, when
I declined several PhD program scholarships dad was upset. To
comfort my dad, in 1993 prior joining GM I told my dad that one day
doctorate may be given to me for my works, I may not have to go to
school to earn it. In 2004, Michigan Tech honored me with a honorary
degree in Doctor of Engineering. The day I got the news, immediately
called my dad and it made his day. What I truly believe in is: if
you have the tenacity and the drive to succeed, the Ivy League
status or PhD does not matter. Look at Dhirubhai Ambani – without
any Ivy league degree or formal education what he achieved or my own
alma mater IIT Kharagpur recently honored Rata Tata with honorary
degree in Doctor of Engineering.
Q: Tell us your views on Asia’s rise, especially India and China.
Any lessons for America?
 For
the past one decade, the political leadership in India and China are
upbeat. Both nations are hungry for success, the way America was
decades ago. In the business side, India and China definitely have a
cost advantage, but they lack quality. The number one threat is the
mushrooming of schools in engineering in both countries. Indians are
producing good quality in the IT field but not in manufacturing or
engineering. There is also a shortage of dedicated good quality
faculty members. Another major threat is that ethics and values are
deteriorating in India and china.
On the other hand, the American political leadership is in turmoil.
The whole issue of work going to India and China has caused some
discomfort to the Americans mind. What can I teach Americans?
America is not the same as it was 40 or 50 years ago. The passion
that jet-started the American dream is missing. Where is that
passion? I don’t see employees being passionate about their jobs any
more. The tenacity in people, the drive, and the passion is what I
would like to see in the new generation of Americans. For all this
to happen, the political leadership has to rise. I hope our next
president will show the vision the way Kennedy did with moon landing
mission.
Q: Corporate Organizations seem to be in a puddle. Why Human
Resources?
The world of work and its definition is changing. It is only natural
that we have a curiosity about how workplace institutions and
management practices will change in these changing times.
 I
firmly believe in integrating ROI (Return on Investment) with ROT
(Return on Talent). If the organization takes care of its people,
the people power will improve the processes that will in turn
increase the productivity power. If you do not continuously check
the talent of the people, no matter what process is created, it is
bound to fail. I treat my employees with care. They are human
beings. As my firm is in consulting, most consultants travel on
business for 200 to 240 days across the globe. One day, I had one my
employees walk in disturbed. I sent him home immediately to take
care of his problem. An unhappy workforce will only result in
mediocre products. ROI is directly correlated – recognize talent,
keep the talent. There is too much focus on meeting the numbers.
Jack Welch, former CEO of GE never missed a single number. His
leadership style was purely based on ROT. Taking care of your people
is the main reason how the ROI was automatically taken care of.
Q: Share your happiest moment from your writings.
One fine day I received a Fedex parcel from the Orlando Florida
County Jail. Inside the package was a very nice binder. Within that
was a very beautiful letter from the Jail Superintendent. He wrote
that an AT&T manager who had volunteered his time at the jail to
teach juvenile inmates about the power of quality. He developed some
course material using my book The Ice Cream Maker to teach
the inmates on how to improve their quality of life using the LEO
principle (Listen, Enrich, and Optimize) introduced in the book. He
described how the inmates were all very positive and congratulated
me on this book that would be serving as their reference point.
 This
gave me enormous joy as in my wildest dream I never imagined my book
will shape the inmates for the better. I was instantly reminded
about my grand father and only then realized why he wanted me to
pick the pen more than the money. I must say that this and more
similar incidents gave me 100 times more pleasure than winning a $10
million business contract. One other instance is a one page email
from a woman from South Carolina who wanted to thank me for writing
The Ice Cream Maker as she got her mother back after
differences for over eight years. This shook me up completely.
The Ice Cream Maker made her listen to her internal customer –
her mom. This type of readers’ inputs give me a tremendous amount of
satisfaction. School teachers applied the LEO principle to the
school system, hospitals and big corporations are using it. If there
were a1000 people whom I did not know, this book brought them closer
to me… This was the power of The Ice Cream Maker. These are
my recent happiest moments from my writings.
Q: What is your current project?
I am still contemplating to write a book on “Passion”. As said
before, in America now a days Passion is missing; especially it is
tougher to be passionate on this economic turmoil. So on this book,
I want to teach common people the key ingredients to become
passionate.
Q: Your passion and plans for the future?
 I
am very passionate about making the society better. I want to
dedicate more time on my Foundation that is focused on helping the
poorest children around the globe. Recently the Subir and Malini
Chowdhury Foundation partnered with Volunteers of America to ‘adopt
a family’ in southeastern Michigan. Last year on this program we
helped 5 families during Christmas time; this year we will help 10
families. Hope one day the Foundation can impact a thousand
families.
As Lester Bangs had rightfully said, “the only questions worth
asking today are whether humans are going to have any emotions
tomorrow, and what the quality of life will be if the answer is no”.
Corporations and social organizations are in a constant flux
deleting and adding human resources in the name of change failing to
realize the productivity issues. The financial crisis the world is
rooted in has only made things worse as companies struggle to make
ends meet. What went wrong? How did the bubble burst? Are companies
investing in the right resources? It is in conjunction with this
thought that an opportunity to meet the Quality Guru of the world
went unopposed and unchallenged. |
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Subir Chowdhury (41) lives with his
wife Malini, seven year old daughter Anandi and one year old son
Anish at Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. The Subir and Malini Chowdhury
Foundation in the US makes annual contributions to the Mother Teresa
Foundation located in Calcutta (West Bengal, India). Apart from
that, the foundation adopts five to ten families in the Detroit
region every year. All the Subir Chowdhury “print royalties” from
China goes to the blind. You can read more about Subir Chowdhury at
www.subirchowdhury.com. |
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