Jinn of Quality and Risk

Feedback is a recent concept, dating back to 1920 according to Merriam-Webster. It is defined as the return to the input of a part of the output of a machine, system, or process (as for producing changes in an electronic circuit that improve performance or in an automatic control device that provide self-corrective action). By extension and in the context of business, feedback is information obtained from the results of a process that is used in revising and guiding that process and its constituent parts. Ideally, there should be feedback loops around all important activities, to make consequences visible, and ultimately to control and improve them. On a philosophical level, the concept of feedback is a recognition of the law of causality: if causes and effects are identified and monitored, one can measure the effects and accordingly adjust the causes in order to obtain effects consistent with one's goals. Feedback is a very powerful concept and tool.

Forbes ASAP: When we speak of feedback, we don't mean strictly the squeal from a microphone placed too close to a speaker, or customer comments to a corporate service center. Rather, the term is shorthand for "feedback loop," which is a closed system by which the consequences of an event send back data that in turn modify that event in the future. For example, hunger followed by eating to assuage that hunger, is a simple feedback loop we all experience. ... [Many companies] are pursuing a vision of high-speed information feedback systems among the departments of corporations, their employees, suppliers, distributors, and end users. This vision, called real-time enterprise computing, offers the potential for companies to instantly identify changes in orders and then quickly respond. But the corporation isn't the only sector of modern life about to be transformed by the use of feedback loops. Automobiles already have demonstrated feedback technology's effects in engine computers and automatic transmission settings; now computer-controlled feedback is moving into the drive train, suspension, passenger compartment environment, and collision avoidance. Effective risk management and quality control rely on feedback loops. So do project reviews and debriefs, when successful and useful. 

Senesco (AMEX: SNT) is engaged in the research and development of genetic technologies to improve commercial agriculture and to treat major medical conditions in humans. [Their] platform technology is based on the identification and characterization of specific genes that are responsible for plant cell death (senescence) and for programmed cell death in humans (apoptosis). Their targets include extending the shelf life of perishable plant products, producing larger and leafier crops, increasing crop yields, and reducing the harmful effects of environmental stresses, such as drought. By suppressing genes already existing in all plants —and without alteration of their natural taste, nutrition or texture— Senesco has bred tomatoes that remain unspoiled for up to five weeks after picking, instead of the regular two weeks. 

Surrealist movie director Davyd Lynch has been running a subscription website since December 2001. For $9.97 per month, entranced fans get special videos, comic strips, puzzles, and other stuff Lynch and his team choose to digitize, such as his daily journal in Cannes at the moment. This sounds like a great idea for an artist to communicate directly with fans and extract more money from them. After six months, the site's monthly revenues already exceeded operating costs, rumoured to be $35,000 to $40,000 in 2002. I wonder which and how many other famous artists are doing something similar? Let's have a quick look... David Bowie seems to have an online store and newsletter. Laurie Anderson is experimenting with the void, or in need of a better webmaster.