I've used Deming's ideas to optimize ads and it did work way better than bayesian ab testing or ML-based approaches. However, management did not like that I was using something so old, so I had to rebrand it, but it was Deming still.
ISO 9001 and most of ISO 27001 are Deming through and through. If you
tell some people you are going to use the principles of some old guy
from the 1980s they laugh and dismiss you. Frame the same thing using
some ISO numbers and throw in words like "compliance" and "best
practice", and they go moist with glee. The shallow anti-intellectual
fakery of some "management" sickens me.
ISO 9001 has never much embraced Deming, despite them saying so. In fact, most of the requirements of ISO 9001 directly contradict Deming, as well as Juran, Crosby and other quality gurus.
The essence of both Deming's legacy and of ISO 9001/27001/45001 etc is "Plan, Do, Check, Act" which is rephrased a thousand ways but boils down to the same thing in the end. Figure out the current situation and decide what changes need to happen; implement the changes as best you can; document the results and evaluate them against expectations and past performance; re-evaluate needs based on evaluation results and repeat the cycle.
To say that those ISO standards are in contradiction of the Deming cycle is surely just some PR attempt to pretend it was an original concept developed by highly specialized committees who absolutely need to be treated as experts, rather than common sense.
I would explain it as a "no true Scotsman" thing. Deming has a very strong influence on the creation of ISO9000 and related standards, but it's like "manifesto Agile" people saying Scrum is heresy.
What does "Adopt the new philosophy. We are in a new economic age. Western management must awaken to the challenge, must learn their responsibilities, and take on leadership for change." mean? Be precise.
It can be possible that his points don't entirely express the useful aspects of his vision.
Any chance of you doing a writeup on using Deming's idea to optimize ads? That would be a very interesting read as most ad optimization methods lack in intellectual rigor and controls.
Some areas have. The whole DS field is a bit of a minefield, mostly due to a "newer is better" view of the world stemming heavily reliance on bootcamps/eschewing fundamentals.
