Here’s some biographical information about the blogger:
I have a great memory, but I think it peaked out when I was in the 6th grade in 1960 and it’s been all downhill from there. Still, even at an advanced age, I seem to remember more than about 70% of the people I know (if Jeopardy! is any indication). Maybe I’ve just been exposed to a lot more than most of them.
From childhood to senior citizen, I’ve been, more or less in this order, the son of a farmer and school teacher, brother (to Henry), cowboy, student, musician, hunter, race car driver, oil painting artist, windmill and fence repairer, cattle auction employee, auto mechanic, rodeo star, writer, sailor on an aircraft carrier in the US Navy, husband, college educated hippie (Texas State), carpenter, plumber, mason, home builder (our own geodesic dome), water district chairman, accountant, computer programmer, manufacturing company business manager, father, corporate software company technical manager, computer applications educator, divorcee, entrepreneur: President of five computer-related companies I started, husband again, speaker at major Data Processing and Information Technology conferences, divorcee again, folk festival regular, husband again, property developer, grandfather, and still going strong.
The people who influenced me include (in no particular order): Charles Darwin, Jesus Christ, Grandmothers (Minnie & Molly), parents (Earl and Grace), Henry Floyd, children (David and Callie), Stuart Brand, Buckminster Fuller, Sandra Kurtzig, Hank Williams, Jerry Whatley, Tom Terrific and Deputy Dawg, Mike Tuggle, Mark Ripma, Tom Lavey, Van Purdy, John Banks, Terry Moseley, Dr. Marvin Johnston, Peter Baen, Ronald Hugh Roberts, Champ Hood, Mrs. Derek (sixth grade) and Mrs. Doss (10th grade), Ruth and Dave Ingram, Chester Damron, three wives (Nanci Hudson, Laura Rowny, and Caren Canfield), John Malcosky, Macon Richmond, Kurt Vonnegut, William Shakespeare...
Like Darwin, I’ve been around the entire planet on a large ship, but, being 18 years old and pretty wild, I spent a lot of time in bars and brothels; still I saw a lot of the world and met a lot of interesting people. In the Navy and afterward, I’ve visited many foreign countries: Mexico, Canada, Cuba, Virgin Islands, Brazil, the Philippines, Japan, Hong Kong, Sydney (Australia), Wellington (New Zealand), Iceland, Luxembourg, France, Monaco, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Bermuda, England, Wales, Ireland, Scotland, Sweden, Denmark, Sicily, the Netherlands. I’ve been to all 50 states except Hawaii. I’ve been to Alaska and seen the sun at midnight and I’ve been near enough to Antarctica to see the sun rotate around the sky and not set for several days as we “slowly” cruised across the South Pacific on an aircraft carrier.
Later in life I’ve really gotten back into oil painting which I started in the 7th grade and didn’t touch for 45 years; it takes a lot of time. I decided in 1986 that I did not have time for golf and have not picked up a club since, but oil painting is a creative pastime that leaves a trail that can be called a body of work. Someday maybe I’ll even have time for golf again.
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Sustainability is Free
I remember meeting Philip Crosby, author of the book Quality is Free, in the late 1980’s after a speech at a large computer users’ conference. His topic, as always, was “quality” and he had an audience full of enthusiasts in IT departments and large IT vendors from around the world in attendance; he made the most of his opportunity. We all wanted to go home and “do it right the first time.”
As owner of a software support company, I see the cost of (and I profit from) poor quality in manufacturing software development every day. The costs of support for large systems sometimes exceeds the cost of the initial purchase within five years. What if your software never “broke”? You certainly would pay more up front but you would never pay for “annual support.”
Today I read an article in the April 2010 issue of “Material Handling Management” magazine that mentioned John Nofsinger’s ideas that sustainability perhaps is related to ideas about the cost of quality espoused by Crosby. Quality has indeed proven to be free in the last 20 years, in one way or another: Toyota, known for high quality products, recently had “accelerator problems” that have cost it a fortune. Is Sustainability Free also? That ultimately depends on what does it costs to fail. Remember BP’s Gulf of Mexico oil spill?
Today (May 1, 2010) I googled “sustainability is free” and found one direct reference on the first page of links: “Sustainability for Free?” at www.productinnovationeducators.com. The article references a study published by Elkington, Emerson & Beloe (2006) which defines the triple bottom line (financial, environmental and societal) and, in a link to a different posting in the same blog, relates it to the “3 P’s” of Profit, Planet, and People.
Here’s a quip attributed Crosby (perhaps via Henry Ford): “Quality means doing it right when no one is looking.” How do we motivate ourselves and our brethren to act sustainably when no one is looking? That is the question, but first I’ll present my ideas on the 3 P’s.
On the sustainability of profit I have only one thing to add because it’s obvious to me that a company must be profitable first. But apparently making money ethically is not as easy as bending morality, so I’d try to be ethically profitable. In a larger sense, it’s the economy that must be profitable to be sustainable. Economic growth has been a boon to mankind, so I’d say ethical “trade” in general is to be encouraged and the sustainability of humanity’s upward march depends on it (see also “the dark ages”).
The sustainability of the planet is a very long term concept to get your head around, involving not only our impact on its environment, but also the possibility of getting wiped out by an asteroid or a comet. Like profit, it is a given that we need to keep the earth from killing us and us from killing it.
People? Are we sustainable? That question could be taken to mean “as a species”, as in extinction is inevitable for our kind. But, I’ll take the other path about whether or not people can actually keep the first two P’s. And can we “respect” each other? All of us? People may be suckers, as PT Barnum said, but they have the internet and can communicate much faster now. New ideas spread around the world instantly. There is hope that education will filter down to the lowest levels, but it’s a long term deal like the sustainability of “the planet.”
Sustainability means doing it profitably, environmentally soundly, with respect for people, and with the best interests of your community, nation, and world in mind - when no one is looking. Surely the answer to how we motivate ourselves to do this involves not only awareness or Nature but also a conscience. That word con-science means “with science” to me.
As owner of a software support company, I see the cost of (and I profit from) poor quality in manufacturing software development every day. The costs of support for large systems sometimes exceeds the cost of the initial purchase within five years. What if your software never “broke”? You certainly would pay more up front but you would never pay for “annual support.”
Today I read an article in the April 2010 issue of “Material Handling Management” magazine that mentioned John Nofsinger’s ideas that sustainability perhaps is related to ideas about the cost of quality espoused by Crosby. Quality has indeed proven to be free in the last 20 years, in one way or another: Toyota, known for high quality products, recently had “accelerator problems” that have cost it a fortune. Is Sustainability Free also? That ultimately depends on what does it costs to fail. Remember BP’s Gulf of Mexico oil spill?
Today (May 1, 2010) I googled “sustainability is free” and found one direct reference on the first page of links: “Sustainability for Free?” at www.productinnovationeducators.com. The article references a study published by Elkington, Emerson & Beloe (2006) which defines the triple bottom line (financial, environmental and societal) and, in a link to a different posting in the same blog, relates it to the “3 P’s” of Profit, Planet, and People.
Here’s a quip attributed Crosby (perhaps via Henry Ford): “Quality means doing it right when no one is looking.” How do we motivate ourselves and our brethren to act sustainably when no one is looking? That is the question, but first I’ll present my ideas on the 3 P’s.
On the sustainability of profit I have only one thing to add because it’s obvious to me that a company must be profitable first. But apparently making money ethically is not as easy as bending morality, so I’d try to be ethically profitable. In a larger sense, it’s the economy that must be profitable to be sustainable. Economic growth has been a boon to mankind, so I’d say ethical “trade” in general is to be encouraged and the sustainability of humanity’s upward march depends on it (see also “the dark ages”).
The sustainability of the planet is a very long term concept to get your head around, involving not only our impact on its environment, but also the possibility of getting wiped out by an asteroid or a comet. Like profit, it is a given that we need to keep the earth from killing us and us from killing it.
People? Are we sustainable? That question could be taken to mean “as a species”, as in extinction is inevitable for our kind. But, I’ll take the other path about whether or not people can actually keep the first two P’s. And can we “respect” each other? All of us? People may be suckers, as PT Barnum said, but they have the internet and can communicate much faster now. New ideas spread around the world instantly. There is hope that education will filter down to the lowest levels, but it’s a long term deal like the sustainability of “the planet.”
Sustainability means doing it profitably, environmentally soundly, with respect for people, and with the best interests of your community, nation, and world in mind - when no one is looking. Surely the answer to how we motivate ourselves to do this involves not only awareness or Nature but also a conscience. That word con-science means “with science” to me.
I have not spent much of my time talking on the phone while driving, but I’ve done it often enough to know that it is difficult. It’s obviously mandatory to focus on the driving but it’s really easy to wander and be using your mind’s eye and not your real eyes. But compared to looking at a screen and typing text messages on a tiny keyboard, it’s easy.
I remember commuting thru the Houston traffic on I-10 West from Katy when I lived there in the 1980’s. As I sat in my car on an 8 lane freeway at 0 MPH, I often had time to ponder what would make the highways more efficient. I decided there would have to be automation because these individual drivers were never going to be able to coordinate their efforts well enough do it alone. Twenty-five years later it would be called smart roads with smart cars.
I could never envision how all that would be paid for so I assumed it would not
happen during my lifetime. Maybe I was wrong. The way things are going, what finally might make young people want to pay taxes and/or tolls for smart roads and to pay extra for smart cars could be the desire of the drivers to talk/text while moving. It seems to be something some people cannot live without.
I remember commuting thru the Houston traffic on I-10 West from Katy when I lived there in the 1980’s. As I sat in my car on an 8 lane freeway at 0 MPH, I often had time to ponder what would make the highways more efficient. I decided there would have to be automation because these individual drivers were never going to be able to coordinate their efforts well enough do it alone. Twenty-five years later it would be called smart roads with smart cars.
I could never envision how all that would be paid for so I assumed it would not
happen during my lifetime. Maybe I was wrong. The way things are going, what finally might make young people want to pay taxes and/or tolls for smart roads and to pay extra for smart cars could be the desire of the drivers to talk/text while moving. It seems to be something some people cannot live without.
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