Life sure is strange. I find myself appearing in the pages of this fine publication after more than 30 years of working for a competitive magazine. And, yet, it’s like a homecoming of sorts. I get to “share ink” with people I’ve worked with for many years, only in a different venue. And though my role in the industry is different today than it was just a few short months ago, my message is still the same — to provide dialogue about what’s happening in the industry and share whatever insights I may have. Perhaps I’ll challenge your views on various topics. As always, I’m open to suggestions and certainly encourage your comments and responses to anything I write.
So, as the door of my previous career closes, another one has opened for me as vice president of communications and publication for the National Comfort Institute (NCI) — a company that is dedicated to the concept of HVAC system performance as well as home/building performance. I now find myself viewing the world through an interesting lens focused on testing and measuring to assure what is promised is actually delivered. In the old days (back when I was a kid just starting out writing about this industry), that statement was part of the definition of quality during the heyday of the quality improvement process (QIP). This concept was pioneered by the likes of W.E. Deming, Konosuke Matsushita (the founder of Panasonic), Malcolm Baldrige, and many others.