The career path of a quality manager in the eyes of those who have entered the field
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Part 1: I am now a freelancer, moving between working for companies and providing services to society. So today I’m here to say that I don’t have any job, but I’m extremely busy. I work for companies, and I have many very high-end clients. It’s also possible that in a few days, I’ll be working as a senior executive at some company. What insights does the development of the quality management field over the past few years offer us regarding our career planning and future prospects? First, I’d like to talk about a discussion on the career path of quality managers. The so-called career is a process of pursuit in which knowing oneself and the enemy ensures success in every endeavor. Often, one’s career is not determined by the company; it is something one decides for themselves. Many scholars have conducted research on careers. For example, in the 1960s, or even in the 1930s, we can see that many people tried to define what a career is, whether what they said was correct or not. What is a career? A career is a path that progresses in a predictable manner through a series of related jobs, based on hierarchical levels of status and honor. Furthermore, you need to view your life and work from a dynamic perspective. And it allows for meaningful explanations of one’s actions, contributions, and rewards at different stages. Many people ask me how I got into the quality industry. In fact, like many others, I took things upon myself without a clear plan. But if you think about it, planning one’s career in a meaningful way is actually a very interesting topic. ASQ offers a very good interpretation of career. It is written in English. In other words, “The first step in developing your career is to realize that it’s you, and not your company, who plays a decisive role in your own career development!” ”One’s career is one’s own business, not the company’s concern. A successful career, in terms of quality, requires a very clear vision and plan; it involves knowing one’s educational background and training, having a clear understanding of the stages in one’s professional development, as well as possessing the necessary professional certifications. There are several requirements that can contribute to a successful career. One is that you must have a vision. What is a vision? Thinking about what will happen in three or five years. Another point is that you need the necessary education and training, as well as a very clear plan regarding whether to become a generalist or a specialist. Professional managers are currently facing enormous difficulties. The first concern is: what does work bring to you? What is the hardest thing to break through at work? What is the hardest thing to guarantee in terms of employment? A job and a career are not the same; their mindsets differ. Many people, even though they have become quality managers or quality directors, consider it merely a job in their minds. There was a company next door with better benefits, so he switched there! Some jump vertically, while others jump horizontally. You ask many people who work as employees, and they see themselves as such employees, but I can tell you that the mindset of an employee is different from that of someone in a career. You can all think carefully about these three questions on your own. China has always been a \"country with a large population,\" but by no means a \"country with a large pool of talents.\" It is now well known that it is very difficult for college students to find a job. We **continue to produce a large number of college graduates at a rate of six hundred per year.** Well, to stand out from among them, you must be talented! So what is the difference between a person and a talent? In reality, corporate management places many demands on us professional managers. Quality managers also set many requirements for the profession. It is only when one’s own requirements fully align with those of the company that such talents stand out. Some people might ask, “What is the difference between ordinary people and talented individuals?” ”I’ll tell you that, under normal circumstances, whether one has power or is wealthy for several generations, in the absence of a favorable social environment, most people belong to that category; they are essentially ordinary citizens. How can those of us who have received some form of professional education move forward and become outstanding talents? It’s not your family background, nor your financial status – it’s your own abilities. One has many abilities; as you can see, for example, when we take those abilities into consideration, there are many different ones. Competencies should be known, understood, and demonstrated. Your level of knowledge, your operational skills, as well as your behavioral performance and mental resilience, all constitute parts of what makes a person talented. Interestingly, at different stages of age development, the level and dimensions of your abilities are different. The expectations that social enterprises have of you, and your own expectations of yourself, are different. So, these capabilities transform from something \"impossible\" into the ability to solve problems at various stages of life. We can take our career as the axis of the life stage, and include age within it. From birth to around 14 years old, it is a period of self-development. Ages 15 to 24 are a period for developing an understanding of practices, abilities, and talents, including through your university, where you explore. Ages 25 to 44 are the period for finding a suitable career and engaging in such activities in order to build one’s professional career. Generally, at this stage, we Chinese call it “reaching maturity at thirty.” By your early thirties or forties, if you still haven’t found your place in life, then things get dangerous for you. So, from 45 to 64 is the stage where one strives to maintain and advance their career. At this age, it should be 64; I think that makes perfect sense. After the age of 65, an individual’s abilities and responsibilities decline, as retirement approaches. So now, in China and around the world, there is the problem of an aging population. Why do I say this? This is a societal requirement; it’s inevitable in society. Especially in **, it’s an inverted triangle shape. The wealth brought about by societal congratulations forces young people to bear the cost of providing for old age. Currently, we are facing an important phenomenon that affects all of us: the aging of our society and the emergence of a reverse triangle shape, meaning that there are more and more elderly people. In particular, among our **only children, the level of literacy among young people is declining. The social wealth contributed by young people, as well as the money that is not sufficient to support our generation in old age. The only difficult thing in society is to get the elderly to keep working and delay retirement. In such a situation, it means that everyone’s professional careers have to be extended under **’s regulations, thus making the trajectory of our professional lives longer. If you go to any factory or any office building in Shanghai, you’ll see that it’s full of young people in the prime of their lives, at the height of their vigor. If you go to the building again in thirty years, they will still be young people. You might wonder, where did all the young people of that time go? Many people work in large companies and are very proud of it. But you can imagine that college graduates enter companies in their twenties, and most of the employees there are young people. But it’s impossible for all young people to retire at the same time. It’s hard to imagine that in 30 years, everyone working will be in their sixties; that’s impossible. So where will we all go? So this is a very important question. What we need to focus on now is the exploration, establishment, and maintenance phase. Especially around the age of 30, one needs to define their own position in life. If it can’t be decided again, it will be very difficult. The stages of life development are actually a “9I” model, moving from bottom to top. There are roughly three stages: knowing, doing, and enjoying. The first phase is “I wait” ； The second stage is I know, I understand ； The third stage is I want, I desire it ； And then, the fourth stage is I learn – I go and study* ； After acquiring knowledge, the next step, Stage 5, is “I transform”. I convert the knowledge I’ve learned into something tangible that I can create ； The next stage is I do – I go and implement it, I take action ； The next stage is to feel a sense of achievement – to realize that I have accomplished something, **even if it’s a small achievement** ； Further down is Ienjoy, which is when you start to appreciate your own life ； The final stage is “I actualize”. At a spiritual level, you’ve achieved what you aspired to; you’re carefree and detached. At this stage, it provides a very vivid description of the career phase in one’s life, or of how one’s life progresses over time. At this stage, it seems to reflect a Chinese saying: “At thirty one gains stability; at forty, one is free from confusion; at fifty, one understands the will of heaven.” So what advantages and insights does this stage bring to all of us? What is understood is analyzed from the perspective of ability; that is, if a person has the ability, they can grasp many things. If they follow the normal path, let’s take quality managers as an example first. What the quality manager is referring to here are the qualities he should possess in order to move forward along that path as mentioned earlier. So, what exactly are these essential qualities? For example, he has self-assessment skills; he has a positive outlook on life and a good psychological state. He also possesses a lot of professional knowledge. Let’s put it simply: the expression of ability is referred to as what one should know, what one should be able to do, and what one should demonstrate – in other words, it’s a description of those aspects. Generally speaking, all of us young people here move forward along this path of ability, throughout our careers at the ages of 30, 40, 50, and beyond. Of course, if you do well, there should be two paths you can take forward. The first path is that of a \"generalist\". Generally, if you work in a factory or pursue a management career in an enterprise, then the path of the generalist involves identifying your areas of strength – it focuses on a broader perspective and places importance on interpersonal relationships. Such individuals possess strong decision-making skills and a broad vision, with a horizontal approach to things. So such people are likely to achieve success; they rise to relatively high positions within the centers of power quite quickly. Because your center of power rises quite high and quite quickly, when you take up that position, it is a remarkable day for you – this is what is meant by being second to none. You appreciate your wealth, you appreciate your power, you appreciate having people surrounding you at all times. But he is under enormous pressure; it’s hard to endure being at such a high position. Generally speaking, the career of a \"generalist\" is relatively short-lived; it’s like a meteor in the night sky that flashes by in an instant. You’ll find that many people who hold high positions end up disappearing without a trace once they leave those positions. It burned itself up; during its short lifespan it burned brightly and dazzlingly, and as a result wealth was accumulated very quickly. Then there is another type of career, which is what we refer to as a “specialist”. It means you have a special skill, and you progress faster on the path of technical expertise. So these people possess very good qualities. These traits are evident in his focus on the microscopic level, as well as in his sustained dedication to knowledge and skills; such people tend to have a vertical way of thinking. “\"Generalists\" and \"specialists\" – it’s not about which one is better or worse; I’m just talking about their differences. A specialist, thanks to his professional knowledge, and if that knowledge keeps evolving over time, then the path of being a specialist is one that is unremarkable – it’s not particularly exciting or dazzling – but it is sustainable. Experts can go on to work as consultants, write books, and provide guidance to businesses as well as in various other areas. Ordinariness is a blessing; that is its characteristic. If we talk about the wealth accumulated over a lifetime by those with specialized skills and those with general knowledge, it’s often the same in many cases – just like a small stream of water that, over time, adds up to more. By the time he retires, his career will have been very long, so he may also have accumulated a certain amount of wealth. So God was very fair in creating humans. But if you ask me whether it’s better to be a \"specialist\" or a \"generalist\", I’ll ask you whether you are better suited to be a specialist or a generalist. This is a question that many people haven’t thought about, so it’s best to ask yourself before starting your career what kind of person you are and what kind of role suits you. This is a path in one’s career. Source: Internet
Part 2: In today’s globalized world, let’s assume that work visas are not required, and let’s assume that your English is excellent, as good as that of Americans. The true meaning of globalization is that people can move around freely; so what is the quality return for those of us here? Approximately, one certificate corresponds to an annual salary of over 70,000 dollars, while five or more certificates result in an annual salary of over 80,000 to 90,000 dollars, or even higher. Of course, if your English is poor and you can’t go abroad, then you’re done – because in China salaries are always the lowest, after all, we have the largest population. But I think, put differently, some of us are indeed recognized by the American Quality Association, meaning that our salary level on a global scale should be at such a level. Of course, some people joke that I’m not satisfied with this and want to earn even more. Then you might need to go into business; working as an employee won’t earn that much money. This is a very important concept of career return that I’m talking about. The challenges and pressures faced in this field of management, when applied to us personally, mean that there are different levels of competence, and one needs to work their way up. Furthermore, you need to determine whether you are a generalist or a specialist, which path to take, and what you want to do in 3 or 5 years. I’ll tell you a story. I remember that in 1993 and 1994, after completing my management degree at the Manchester Business School in the UK, I wanted to return to Asia; at that time, the situation in China wasn’t very good. Very early in 93 and 94, especially in 93. The political turmoil in 1989 and 1990 led to a severe downturn in the economy as a whole. But since I study management, I think in a long-term perspective. It’s very difficult for those who study management to run a company abroad – taking into account political issues, cultural differences, and historical factors. It’s hard to imagine a Chinese person being able to manage hundreds of foreigners, let alone a Chinese manager in a foreign company overseeing thousands of foreigners; it’s almost impossible. That’s why I decided to return to Asia. So once that information became available, many multinational companies came to me at the time. The president of Coca-Cola in the Asia-Pacific region, along with the general manager of Swire’s business unit, came to see me at Manchester Business School. He talked to me about many things; of course, I was very hesitant, and I certainly wanted to return to Asia as well. His last question, a very crucial one, was asked to me like this. He said we have already talked a lot about it; that’s not a problem. He said it’s not an issue at all. I asked many questions, including something about how expensive houses are, since his headquarters is there. He said that houses are expensive, but that’s not a problem; he said it wasn’t an issue at all. He thought that any problem that could be solved with money wasn’t a real problem, but what he asked me in the end was, \"I have one question, the last question I want to ask you.\" He said I had one last question for you. It’s that our Coca-Cola business is growing very rapidly in China, and it’s also growing very fast in **Taiwan. We have so many opportunities; there are lots of chances available. You can find a job in our group anyway. He said that you can take on any position in my company – you’re always welcome. But it was him who asked me that. He said, \"I’d like to ask you, what do you see for yourself in ten years’ time? What role do you think you will be in then?\" He asked me what I would be like in ten years. Many people ask Teacher Hong how you replied at that time; he was asking me about my career, about my professional path. I’ll keep it a secret for now and not tell you here. But if you answer this question well, the job will be yours. I answered, and now that I think about it, I answered very well. Because it’s called knowing yourself and your enemy; I’m prepared, as you can see. He heard my answer and said, OK, that’s no problem, it’s not an issue. I’ll see you in Hong Kong. He said he meant \"see me in Hong Kong\", which means my job is mine now. A month later, I left Britain with my whole family and returned to **; at that time, ** had not yet regained its independence and was still a colony. Thus began my career in Asia. I am still grateful to him now, extremely grateful. He first talked to me about career issues. Many people are very curious to know how you answered him at that time. I can tell you that if I hadn’t answered well at that time, without a very clear understanding, he might have thought it over. Let’s go back to this topic. In this cultural context in China, I ask you the same question: what do you see yourself as being in ten years’ time? In other words, what do those present think will be our future like in ten years? What kind of development will there be? One day, the general manager called you in and said that you are doing well in every aspect, and that our company offers many opportunities. In ten years, think about what you want to become – how do you see yourself then? Are you ready to answer this question? Turning back, I’d like to talk about a very practical issue: in the cultural environment for development in China, if one aims to focus on quality, many people will feel at a loss. Because quality work is a very difficult and thankless task in our working society. In a company, as long as there are no quality issues, it’s completely normal – no one will think of you. As long as there are issues with product quality or anything else of that kind, it’s your responsibility. If you don’t do your job well, you might not get the highest salary; moreover, the work is the most demanding. Important decisions aren’t usually made by you – personnel, sales, and finance departments are given more priority, and it’s not even clear where the position of a quality manager lies. If you’re really asked what you can do in 10 years, or how much value you can create, you struggle because you don’t have any data to show or to speak about. You can only say, \"Boss, I’ll help you get the ISO9000 certificate,\" and then he will ask how much it cost you. But if I ask you how much money you can help the company earn, you’ll be at a loss for words and unable to answer. Speaking from this perspective, and if you look at our society, it doesn’t place much emphasis on quality; quality is something that is greatly neglected in our environment. From this perspective, we can see that our boss’s commitment to quality is rather lax. There is a humanistic atmosphere in our phone calls as well: “Hey, how have you been lately?” You’re doing pretty well, right? ”“Ah, OKOK, I’m getting by pretty well. I do everything in a half-hearted manner, not striving for perfection. So, in such a humanistic environment, how do we quality managers position ourselves? Most of us who study quality are people who entered this field in a hasty manner; some of us have a background in engineering, mathematics, or equipment management, rather than in the humanities. My statistics and students tell me that the majority come from engineering backgrounds. But our weakest areas are in culture, interpersonal communication, and leadership – precisely the things that our society places the greatest emphasis on. Our society values interpersonal relationships, communication, leadership, and culture highly, yet we are the weakest in these areas. How can one find breakthroughs in one’s field when there is an imbalance between strength and weakness? This is also a challenge posed to everyone. The bottlenecks in the development of our careers appear invisibly after 8 to 10 years, and around the age of 35 to 45, a mid-life crisis emerges. Why does the midlife crisis usually appear around the age of 35 to 40? At this point, you are at the top of the company; everything you know, your subordinates basically know as well. Their salary is only half of yours, they are younger than you, more capable than you, faster in both speed and reaction, and they are also better at flattering their bosses than you are. So at the slightest sign of trouble, either the boss will get rid of you, or if not, he’ll ignore you, stripping you of your dignity and forcing you to leave. But why is the midlife crisis said to occur between the ages of 35 and 45? The mortgage on the house isn’t fully paid off, and the car loan isn’t either. There are elderly parents to support and children who haven’t started working yet, so you’re under the greatest financial pressure and feel the most frustrated at this time. How to deal with the midlife crisis? I have a very interesting magic item. How can you view the development of your career from a dynamic perspective? Let’s talk about positive things. In fact, we **provide you with a very large platform; if you have the ability for social development, professional skills, methodological skills, and comprehensive capabilities, then you should reflect on whether you possess these qualities – that’s what companies expect from their employees. Is our knowledge continuously declining? During the ten years you have worked in this company, in terms of your professional expertise, technical knowledge, and academic knowledge, especially when looking at this green line, some data show that the half-life of professional expertise is quite short – generally, a cycle lasts 5 to 6 years. If you don’t learn anything within these 5 to 6 years, if you keep doing the same things over and over again while working at a company – if what you do this year is the same as what you did last year. So when the company decides to take drastic action and lay off employees, you shouldn’t blame the company; you can only blame yourself, because your value to the company is becoming increasingly low. Thinking in reverse, how can we ensure that our knowledge keeps advancing in step with the times? Then take a look at what has been done in quality management over the years, and what developments have taken place during these seventy or eighty years. President Wu mentioned something very important this morning, namely the concepts of small Q and large Q. Many of the quality managers here are very knowledgeable when it comes to product quality specifications and technical standards; they are experts in this field. When it comes to topics such as control, prevention, assurance, and continuous improvement, or when discussing sustainable development, he starts to get a bit off track. We are now discussing the development of quality. If you look at ISO9000:9004, which was introduced in 2009, it addresses the use of quality development methods to manage a company’s sustainable development, that is, the sustainable growth of its business. It does not focus on product quality as we usually understand it; rather, it covers a much broader range of concepts. Now, we have moved from aspects such as sample inspection, testing, control, improvement, quality control systems, assurance systems, and quality management systems to business management systems. Many of those present are making rapid progress in this field and have a thorough understanding of the more advanced aspects. If you can’t master it, when our society moves into this field, your knowledge will become outdated; therefore, sometimes we need to check whether we are keeping up and whether we are ahead of others. Further reading: From 30 to 35: Adding more depth to your life. The concept of comprehensive quality management is extremely rich; it is not merely about tools or processes. It includes systems, strategies, leadership, teams, and culture – it encompasses almost everything. How many people in our team possess the essential skills needed? How many management methods are mastered within our processes? And what tools and systems do we have that we can share with everyone to help us move forward? If one day Teacher Hong discusses with you what the concept of strategic guidance is, how much would you know then? When you know very little about the entire concept of quality management – only a third or half of it – that becomes our motivation as well as our pressure to learn more. The concepts of Small Q and Large Q are constantly evolving. The world has developed very rapidly over the past two years, especially as industries in China undergo upgrading. There are several areas that deserve attention: the first area is the need to improve quality. To move from product quality to organizational excellence, it is necessary to elevate the quality of individual elements to the level of line quality, and further to the level of area quality. The quality managers here need to manage the relationships among points, lines, and planes effectively. Another point is the quality in the manufacturing industry – many people are familiar with it – but what about the quality in the service industry? Do you know about that? As for how to improve the quality of the service industry, society is developing at a very fast pace. Even China, a major manufacturing country, is beginning to undergo transformation. During this process, we need to explore higher levels of development – these are the aspects we’re referring to when we talk about integrating different elements together as a way to achieve career transitions; it represents a very promising direction for the future. Let me give a concluding point: surveys show that 42.37% of the respondents indicated that the biggest difficulty they face is the lack of room for development. In fact, the feeling among white-collar workers that there is a lack of career advancement opportunities is partly caused by their employers, but a significant portion is due to the workers themselves. Once you step out of the school gates, you must begin a series of shifts in mindset. First, it is a shift from being a school student to being a member of society; then, from being a person focused on knowledge to being a person with practical skills; and thirdly, from being an individual to being part of a organization or enterprise. Opportunities are closely related to these three types of shifts, and how one can seize opportunities depends more on one’s own mindset and the way one defines oneself. In other words, the requirements for the development of professional learning abilities. Professional competence is the result of practice and experience, representing permanent changes in behavior; therefore, we must constantly seek opportunities to develop aspects that are relevant to our professional growth. When working in a company, the most troublesome and serious challenge is assuming that you will continue to do the same things as you have done over the past two or three years, without trying to learn new things; you need to have a sense of urgency and make an effort to learn. The best method is ASQ. What impressed me the most about ASQ is that it has a rich body of knowledge, and its knowledge base is also extremely comprehensive. Returning to what we were talking about earlier, if you look at any large company, there are only handsome men and beautiful women working there nowadays, all young people; and in 30 years, they will still be young. Then how can we still be valuable? What I have realized is that you need to have abilities and knowledge that surpass those of your peers; you should treat your own company as a learning platform, continuously working on developing your career, so that even when the company no longer needs you or you leave it, you still have a career through which you can contribute to society. Someone asked me what the best profession in the world is. I say that anyone can become excellent in whatever they do; there is no best profession, nor is there any worst one. What kind of career is considered the most successful? Any career can be successful. You ask me what the three criteria for measuring successful people are; what would my answer be? First, in this industry, what are you best at? Because only those who are skilled and talented can excel. The second point is that you like this thing. If you like it, you will be happy; you won’t feel sad. The third point is that this line of work, this profession, can also bring you a certain amount of wealth. As long as these three conditions are met, any profession is a successful one. The last question for everyone is: when you choose a career as a quality manager, whether you pursue a path as a generalist or a specialist, do you make your decisions based on these three criteria? If not, give up early and change careers sooner; you still have time. If someone chooses to become a quality manager simply because the job is located near where they live and the salary is decent, but they have no interest in it, are not good at it, and aren’t happy doing it, then they won’t be successful; they will quickly end up in the \"4050\" situation. This is the sense of crisis that our profession imposes on us. It’s best to consider interests, hobbies, aspirations, career goals, as well as short-term, medium-term, and long-term learning plans – ASQ takes care of all these aspects for you very well. Everyone should use that platform as a reference, let it guide everyone forward – obtain the necessary certificates, participate in the required activities, and learn what needs to be learned. It’s essential to use one’s career as a guide to surpass one’s peers and colleagues, and to always remember to keep learning. Here are a few summaries for quality managers: shift the focus from product quality to organizational excellence, and work together to achieve it. Working in a field with low value only brings corporate value, not societal value; if you switch industries and the company goes bankrupt, all your knowledge is worth nothing. Therefore, you need to elevate product quality to the level of organizational excellence, transform your company’s value into socially meaningful values that can be sustained over time, and become a responsible member of society. You must shift from a mindset of being an employee to one focused on pursuing a lifelong career. Thus, focusing on skill development along the path of lifelong learning is the best tool for navigating all the challenges that may arise in your future professional life. Source: Internet