Be Careful What You Write

In 1999 I was asked to write an article for the Journal for Quality
and Participation about the contributions to management theory and practice made by Dr. W. Edwards Deming and Dr. Joseph Juran. I wrote what I thought was a good article and, perhaps more importantly, the Journal's editor was pleased.

The article has found a home on several websites devoted to quality management and may have been republished elsewhere. I'd not thought of it for awhile.

In any case, I was surprised to learn, from an unexpected source, that Dr. Juran had died earlier this month at the age of 103. Further, the LA Times quoted from my long-ago article in their article on his passing.

I was pleased that the quotes from my article (which cited the contributions of both Deming and Juran) were well-chosen and used in appropriate context. And, I'm still pleased with what I wrote about Deming and Juran in 1999.

I only learned of Juran's passing, and the LA Times article, through a free Google feature that tracks the mention of my name on the Internet. Dr. Juran is on the left of the photo below.

It seems good practice these days to know when, why and how one's name shows up on the web.