Japanese Quality Leader Dies

Yoshio Kondo understood that quality is about people

Published: Monday, April 4, 2011 - 14:49

Yoshio Kondo, Ph.D., a quality management leader who stressed the interrelationship between quality and people, died April 1, 2011, at the age of 87.

According to professor Samuel Ho and Christopher Fung, Ph.D., authors of the TQM Excellence Model, Kondo emphasised the interrelationship between quality and people and saw humanity as the essence of motivation. According to Kondo, human work should always include the following three components:
• Creativity—the joy of thinking
• Physical activity—the joy of working with sweat on the forehead
• Sociability—the joy of sharing pleasure and pain with colleagues

Among his many awards, Kondo received the Nikkei Quality Control Literature Prize in 1967, and the Deming Prize in 1971. He also was an ASQ Grant Award and Lancaster Award recipient before being elected as ASQ’s 23rd honorary member.

The February 2001 issue of Quality Progress notes that in 2000, Kondo was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star, presented by Emperor Akihito of Japan. The Japanese government also recognized his contributions as dean and professor of engineering at Kyoto University, president of the Japanese Society for Quality Control, and president and chair of the International Academy of Quality (IAQ).

Two of Kondo’s books, Human Motivation: A Key Factor for Management (Quality Resources, June 1991) and Companywide Quality Control: Its Background and Development, were translated into English.

About The Author

Dirk Dusharme @ Quality Digest

Dirk Dusharme is Quality Digest’s editor in chief.