While contemplating the teachings of Edwards Deming, who is widely known for being vocal on the topics of quality and statistical analysis, I thought I’d delve into a few areas where he was a little less known, but just as passionate and to a certain extent influential: leadership and innovation.

My choice in tackling this topic was motivated in part by the fact that coupling leadership and innovation together to drive business growth for positive outcomes has seen a bit of a revival during the past few years. As such, I thought it would make sense to dive into some of my own thoughts on these two areas based on my studies of some pretty remarkable scholars.

Let’s start with Deming, who was famous for saying, “Driving your business based on your profit and loss is like driving your car by looking through the rearview mirror.” In other words, in order to grow your business, you must innovate quality products that solve a customer’s problem, and provide an exceptional customer experience. None of which is related to your profit and loss, because it’s nothing more than a great barometer of your past decisions.

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