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Continue reading →: 2008 Management Improvement Carnival: The Year in Review
I’m privileged to be partnering with John Hunter and friends to produce the Year-End Management Improvement Carnival. Our goal is to review the best management improvement blogs out there, and find out what gems were posted during 2008 – then take you on a guided tour of the past year’s…
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Continue reading →: Management Improvement Carnival #48
I’m pleased to be hosting this edition of John Hunter’s Management Improvement Carnival. This concept aims to bring together some of the most intriguing blog articles from the past couple of weeks on topics relevant to quality, continuous improvement, and effective management. You can also submit your favorite management posts…
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Continue reading →: A Dynamic Model of Quality Improvement
Debanjan Mitra, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Marketing at the University of Florida, is a quality guru – whether quality professionals know it or not. Here’s why: have you ever been frustrated by all those definitions for quality (e.g. the transcendent “you know it when you see it”,…
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Continue reading →: The Role of Creativity in Innovation
(Image Credit: Doug Buckley of http://hyperactive.to) Innovation requires creativity, and has even been described as the act of channeling creativity to produce ideas or products “that people can and wish to use,” (Vandevert, 2003) because creativity is the cognitive process that enables innovation. This topic has been extensively studied in…
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Continue reading →: Authenticity for Quality
In Good Business, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi discusses some insights from Robert Shapiro, CEO of the chemical company Monsanto about authenticity and job design: The notion of job implies that there’s been some supreme architect who designed this system so that a lot of parts fit together and produce whatever the desired…
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Continue reading →: What is Design Science?
Initially conceptualized by Herbert Simon (1996), the design science paradigm “is fundamentally a problem solving paradigm, [which] seeks to create innovations that define the ideas, practices, technical capabilities, and products through which the analysis, design, implementation and management and use of… systems can be effectively and efficiently accomplished.” (Hevner, 2004)…
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Continue reading →: Quality and the Decline of the U.S. Automotive Industry
Why are Ford, Chrysler and GM in trouble? Can a financial bailout help? In late 2007, I wrote a 7,000 word article examining the ups and downs of the U.S. auto industry. Using a historical analysis of high-level metrics and examining the evolution of quality perception and quality improvement in…
Hello,
I’m Nicole
Since 2008, I’ve been sharing insights and expertise on Digital Transformation & Data Science for Performance Excellence here. As a CxO, I’ve helped orgs build empowered teams, robust programs, and elegant strategies bridging data, analytics, and artificial intelligence (AI)/machine learning (ML)… while building models in R and Python on the side. In 2025, I help leaders drive Quality-Driven Data & AI Strategies and navigate the complex market of data/AI vendors & professional services. Need help sifting through it all? Reach out to inquire – check out my new book that reveal the one thing EVERY organization has been neglecting – Data, Strategy, Culture & Power.
Quality and Innovation 