ASQ InfVoices - Failure is the Mother of Success

The Topic of ASQ Influential Voice in Chinese New Year is "Risk, Failure & Careers in Quality" which raised by Paul Borawski (CEO, ASQ). Paul pointed out that teens are afraid of taking risk pursuing Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) careers. Moreover, he would like to discuss how much risk quality professionals are willing to take to find solutions to quality challenges.

"Failure is the mother of success (失敗乃成功之母)" is one of popular Chinese proverbs. Most Chinese teens understand this proverb. However, few teens will take risk in their study. Teens selected STEM field depend on their interest and capability. It is also affected by environment. In Hong Kong, most students would like to select Business Study in secondary school and university. It is because Hong Kong is one of financial hubs in Asia and the World.

For Scientists or Qualitologists, "Try and Error" is one of common problem solving tools but it takes a risk to waste time for wrong direction. Therefore, we employ Design of Experience (DOE) or Theory of Solving Inventive Problems (TRIZ in the Russian abbreviation - теория решения изобретательских задач) to reduce the risk for solving scientific or quality problems. As quality professionals, we alway face the risk. We don't be afraid it but manage it in systematic manner. Good quality come from sufficient risk management. That's what Deming said in "Out of the Crisis".

I would like to share for risk management and crisis management. ISO 31000:2009 is one of international standards for risk management. Risk Definition in this standard is"Effect of Uncertainty on Objectives". Its principle, framework and process diagram are showed below.

Another standard named ISO 22301:2012 for Business Continuity Management System (BCMS) where PDCA model is applied to BCMS processes. Some seminars related to ISO 22301 and BS25999 are listed into reference.

There are four risk treatment activities stated in ISO 27005:2008.
A)  Risk Reduction
- The level of risk should be reduced through the selection of controls so that the residual risk can be re-assessed.
B)  Risk Retention
- The decision on retaining the risk without further action should be taken depending on risk evaluation.
C)  Risk Avoidance
- The activity or condition that gives rise to the particular risk should be avoided.
D)  Risk Transfer
- The risk should be transferred to another party that can most effectively manage the particular risk

Don't be Afraid of RISK! Manage it!

Reference:
ISO 31000:2009 - Risk management - Principles and guidelines
ISO 22301:2012 - Societal security - Business continuity management systems - Requirements
ISO/IEC 27005:2008 - Information technology - Security techniques - Information security risk management
TRIZ related seminar - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/search?q=TRIZ
Remember Dr. Genichi Taguchi, Creator of Taguchi Method (DOE) - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2012/06/remember-dr-genichi-taguchi-creator-of.html
HKQAA Seminar on ISO 22301 Business Continuity Management System - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2012/10/hkqaa-seminar-on-iso-22301-business.html
Implementation of Business Continuity Management (BS25999) - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2008/10/implementation-of-business-continuity.html