If you knew Dr. W. E. Deming, raise Your Hand!

Quality Improvement Initiative at Canbide, by Patrick Darnell

Quality and Supply Chain Management Introduction

Many analysts claim the previous century’s Quality Gap between western and eastern producers is closed. Others claim the gap is re-opened and a sleeping giant, China, is going to leap-frog onto the scene. Developments could create a global attrition of manufacturing, food, and energy firms, with threats arising in unexpected areas. Many have already acknowledged the shift in industry models all over.
How did the eastern countries achieve High Quality in spite of ever-evolving global market demands? To answer quality strategy several implicit functions of industry and service remain profoundly important:

• Change is constant
• Quality is key
• Bottom-line is innermost

Task Objective

Explain the major philosophical principles that serve as the foundation for quality management.
Describe the primary strategies used for implementing quality approaches.
Use effective communication techniques.
Task Detail
“With the increasing prevalence of ISO 9000 programs, Canbide has initiated a corporate wide Excellence through Quality (EQ) program. Most of the plants and operational locations have already launched their EQ programs.” (CTUOnline; 2007, Task Detail

“As part of your research for the quality project for the Central Engineering and Research Department (CERG) at Canbide, you have identified W. Edwards Deming, Joseph M. Juran, and Philip Crosby as the three individuals who are most often associated with Quality Management philosophies. Using your Library resources, discuss which of the three you think has the best approach to quality management that would meet the needs of CERG.” (2007; ibid)

Future Questions about Quality to be asked:

• Do organizations need to have a value proposition, vision and mission statement?
• Should your product and/or service strive to obtain zero defects?
• How will Canbide define total quality management, TQM?
• Include a description of the impact of globalization on quality.
• Compare / contrast traditional management styles with quality focused management styles.
• Explain how TQM applies or should apply to Canbide organization.

Sources
“You will find ...selected books and articles which contribute to the new world view of systems thinking, continual improvement, and cooperation.” (CTU; 2007) The nucleus of the collection is material by Dr. Deming or Dr. Ackoff or about their ideas; retrieved from website like: management wisdom com.

In addition, this paper relies on other secondary sources from internet such as: web site for Department of Navy, Engineering web sites, and agency websites – Six Sigma, and others. For instance the General Accounting Office adopted a Total Quality Management approach for the organization after studying the successes of private industry. The IRS and DOD have embraced bottom-line versions of total quality management. DOL has much to say about TQM.

Discussion: W. Edward Deming, PhD 1900 – 1993 Statistician

My discussion starts and ends with Deming. Dr. W. E. Deming has made many clarifications over the years. Most of his statements have statistical support concerning Quality Gap: It is the “difference between the approved standards, criteria, or expectations in any process or activity and the real results in such process or activity in accordance with the adopted national and or international standards by any country.” (Maswady, Mazen A; Nov. 28, 2002)

Few people are ever given an opportunity to build their own idea into an empire. Dr. Deming was given that opportunity. When the war ended, it is doubtful Nippon could have built planes, trains or automobiles at all, good or bad. American bombs had reduced Japanese cities to ruins. Nippon port cities all were damaged. It ended badly for ports as 70 percent had been destroyed. Reconstruction forces found Industrial cities no less than 40 percent destroyed, most would be much worse. Not to mention the long term fall out and annihilation from atomic weapons.

Because Nippon had been built of mostly wood, Tokyo all but burned to the ground by American fire-starting air raids in March, 1945. Unparalleled in history, along with another well-known American quality guru-J.M. Juran, Deming went to Japan as part of the occupation forces of the allies after World War II. Deming taught a lot of Quality Improvement methods to the Japanese, including the usage of statistics and the PLAN, DO, STUDY, ACT cycle that represents the modified the SHEWART cycle.

Sources have reported over the years the Post WWII Japanese learned how to turn out quality from “Sarasohn, Protzman, Polkinghorn, Shewhart, Deming, Juran, Fiegenbaum, and others.” Many “would add their own quality wrinkles in Japan over the years, just as Philip Crosby would in the US starting in 1979.” (Crawford-Mason, Clare; Tuesday, April 23, 2002)

However, after reading about other bodies of work, W. E. Deming stands out as the leader in education and understanding with the most powerful Value Proposition.

Quality as Leading Indicator
The preceding innovators have not proposed the same definition for quality – “no two of those men - indeed, no two people we've talked to anywhere - agree precisely on how quality is defined” (April 23, 2002).

Dr. Deming had a learn’ed notion that earned no-nonsense eminence in early years. It starts with the “vision, goals, strategies and mission that must be fully thought through, agreed and shared in the business. What follows determines whether or not these are achieved. The building blocks of the mission are critical to success” in pursuit of Quality Management after the Second World War and much further beyond. (gov.uk; May 28, 2007)

With impressive use of statistics to prove his theory, he led many back to realization that continuous improvement is a satisfactory reason for living, working and playing. He extended to management that they are responsible for their workers’ production, and more importantly the quality of their production. It made him unpopular with management, but “he did prove a link between inconsistency – poor quality – and impaired management performance” (McLaughlin, G, PhD; n.d; prarphrased)

Management is the Key that Unlocks
How it all becomes so is in the probability for welfare, goals, and achievement of each worker, compared to failure, sickness and sabotage. The implicit relationship between management and worker will have defined outcome. If the relationship is bad, then there are “unwanted variables in production,” and unwanted outcomes in product. If the relationship is supportive, outcome is not given to impairments.

Managerial tactics had historically been causing injury and harm to worker-management relations. Health of industry in areas of function and output had lacked natural growth. Technology had grown, but lag times of considerable lengths thwarted using the new technology. Exit barriers existed by averted workforce. So much change-averse behavior had existed that management would expend its resources trying to get around, or through barriers, and seldom with the workers.

“New century innovation is challenging all business governance. To strike a delicate balance while putting into service high-tech change, business units collaborate as never before with accounting metrics. As in changes that are dramatic enough to make a difference, but not so dramatic as to be disruptive or unrealistic ‘pie-in-the-sky’ solutions,” accounting management is called on to partner up with operations, functional departments, enterprise acquisition, long-range product development, and business-driven solutions to improve process. (US Department of Labor, 2006; paraphrased)

Excellence through Quality: EQ
The following might very well be the vision statement for EQ at Canbide.
“The never-ending improvement cycle ensures that an organization learns from its results, standardizes what it does well in a documented system and improves operations and outputs from what it learns. This must be done in a planned, systematic and conscientious way to create a climate and culture of quality and excellence that permeates the whole organization.” (Dti gov UK; n.d)

Dr. Deming is best known for making management uncomfortable: “Drive out fear so that all may work effectively for the organization.” Managers often will rely on fear to force their desire or inclinations on workers. Despite its usual processes of making decisions, will Canbide be able to follow the many points of departure that follow a true Deming system-think organizational change? (McLaughlin, G, PhD; n.d, paraphrased)

Dr. Deming’s ideas let us manage “what we do not and cannot control.” Canbide will have conformed to the externalities and internal forcers as they arrive. Then we review and find the next source of those forcers we cannot control, and adjust our functional processes. “Our aim is to create wider awareness of the benefits and sense of urgency for its practice.”

It is imperative that Canbide remember the benchmarks of “Dr. W. Edwards Deming’s principles [that have supported] the global success of Toyota, Proctor & Gamble, Ritz Carlton, Harley-Davidson, and many other leading organizations. His teachings are essential for the effective application of Six Sigma, Lean Manufacturing, Loyalty/ Net Promoter and other quality improvement, customer retention and business growth methods.” (Management wisdom aimofma; 2007)

Conclusion: Canbide should...
Canbide will revisit the knowledge base of Deming. All other implements of re-tooling Canbide are dependent on a total understanding by management as we define our organization “in the 21st century needs to be seen and understood as complex social systems in a rapidly changing world.”

As Canbide turns more attention to external forcers, importance of “suppliers and customers and their needs become apparent.” It turns out; Deming’s ideas... merging with those who have followed his logic and either made competitive analogies, or improved the science of, encourage a correct mindset of needing a structured focus in order to learn and apply.

What more could an altruistic Quality Guru desire than to provide a stellar basic scheme, focusing on disciplined thinking and producing? After all, “Science is built up with facts, as a house is with stones. But a collection of facts is no more a science than a heap of stones is a house.”(Poincaré; n.d)

Therefore, Canbide will have focused primarily on quality, as described in the ratio of “results of work efforts divided by Costs.” In the new thinking: when the focus is on costs quality declines: when the converse, quality increases over time. I think Canbide will have best increase in Quality if we start with Deming’s Body of Knowledge, and work toward other Gurus’ specialties as the opportunity arises.

References
Crawford-Mason, Clare; (Tuesday, April 23, 2002); Page HE01 Special to The Washington Post, also published in Quality Progress Magazine of the American Society for Quality, November, 2004 retrieved from May 21-24, 2007 management_wisdom com bemileinvi1
CTUOnline; (2007) Task Detail, retrieved May22-28, 2007 at MGM375
Curious Cat; (n.d) retrieved May 22-28, 2007; from curious cat com guides Deming cfm
Dti gov UK; (n.d) retrieved from businessballs dtiresources TQM implementation blueprint PDF
Management_wisdom stores yahoo chap1qualore; (n.d) retrieved from ibid chap 1 qualore
Management_wisdom com aimofma; (n.d) retrieved from ibid ...aimofma
McLaughlin, Greg, PhD; (n.d) TQM – Quality Gurus, ppt, retrieved May 20-28, 2007, CTUOnline, Course home, Task Detail
Maswady, Mazen A; (Nov. 28, 2002)
Poincaré, Quotes of; (n.d) retrieved May 22-28, 2007, La Science et l'hypothèse at quotes from Poincaré
US Department of Labor, (2006); retrieved May 22-28, 2007

Essays by Robert Bly

Thinking Of Bill In Atchison, Kansas, By Robert Bly
A few weeks ago I gave a reading at Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas for Sister Mary Faith, who is now 94. She always made Bill–and me, too–welcome there on many occasions. This particular reading, planned for a Sunday morning, was scheduled in an exposed area of the Student Affairs Building, and so we moved the reading to the Exercise Room, for coziness.
We could feel many presences during the reading.

The house where Amelia Earhardt grew up is only a few blocks away, and this patch of the Missouri River bank is exactly where Lewis and Clark's group camped one night. And of course Bill Stafford's presence we could feel. Someone said, "Hutchinson is only an hour away." Bill's mother had prepared all her children for entering the world by remarking, when the occasion came to consider the value of people in her family, "Not much." Of course, if one's mother says that, one will probably consider the opposite proposition as well. . .that perhaps we were exchanged in the cradle and we really are of royal birth. It's important to be able to say, as Bill remarks at the end of "A Story That Could Be True," "Maybe I'm a king."

A woman has to remember to think, "Maybe I'm a queen." Of course in saying that one has to be sure to include the word "maybe"–that's to avoid being taken away. This sentence is important for our health. This sentence is the one we need to memorize, and everyone in that exercise room, sitting among the Nordic Traks and the weight lifting devices, felt the truth of it.
We also had the job of holding our own against Bill Stafford's poems. If we listen to another's truth too much, we lose our own, or we lose listening. So that day we had to remember Clinton and his problems as well. We can listen and at the same time not be taken in by someone else's opinion.

Some of us recalled Bill's father, who was such a powerful listener:

My father could hear a little animal step

or a moth in the dark against the screen.

And every far sound called the listening out

into places where the rest of us had never been.

Inside a poem Bill often placed himself out in the raggedy mountains or out in the raggedy grasses or inside some field of the mind, and there he felt he could listen even better.

Sometime when the river is ice
ask me mistakes I have made.
Ask me whether what I have done is my life...
I will listen to what you say.
You and I can turn and look at the silent river and wait.

We know the current is there, hidden . . .

At this moment in the poem, he's listening to the current moving underneath the ice. What is the gist of the current of our long life? Now just when you think he will express all that for us, he goes back to listening:

Whatever the river says, that's what I say.

All content of this site, unless otherwise noted, is copyright ©2001 Robert
Bly. All Rights Reserved. Any duplication, in any form without the written
consent of the copyright

It's Syndromes Week!

17:00 hours
How can I go on believing the greater you is in me?
Burst-ed bones of broken legs into the fire
Of potash Ash, Yaupon and Aspen
And jawbone of an ass
Jutting out, smoky mass
Turning watery eyes waterier
Crack'led, disturb'led to the finish
A wash of mountain yonder made
roll of clouds End of day, in fixed array
Devoid possibility of end shade
Fixed time light dappled
Ordinary mottled band
And variegated home of praying mantis
awaits hiding in the stand

Is the Previous Evidence of Ganser's Syndrome?

Ganser's Syndrome is a factitious disorder, characterised by the individual mimicking behaviour yhey think are typical of a psychosis, by providing nonsensical or wrong answers to questions, and doing things incorrectly.

The answers given, however, are usually so close to the question as to reveal that the patient has understood the question. Also called nonsense syndrome, balderdash syndrome, syndrome of approximate answers, pseudodementia or prison psychosis... The syndrome is described most frequently in prison inmates form whom it may represent an attempt to gain leniency from prison or court officials... classified in DSM-IV as one of the dissociative disorders.

People with Ganser Syndrome have short-term episodes of odd behavior similar to that shown by people with serious mental illnesses. Diagnosing Ganser syndrome is very challenging, not only because some measure of dishonesty is involved but also because it is very rare hoever the main characteristic of the syndome are:

The person may appear confused and make absurd statements. Report hallucinations. * Vorbeireden, or approximate answers, in which the person gives nonsense answers to simple questions. Intentional production of physical or psychological symptoms. The patient's motivation is to assume the sick role. External motives (such as financial gain) are absent.

Associated Features

The syndrome is commonly associated with:
Dissociative Amnesia or Fugue.
Hallucinations.Somatic Conversion.
Possible Brain Injury.
More commen in Men than Women.
Major Personal loss experienced.
Period of Depression experienced after an episode.
Loss of Memory during periods of the episode.

Differential Diagnosis:

Some disorders have similar symptoms. The clinician, therefore, in his diagnostic attempt, has to differentiate against the following disorders which need to be ruled out to establish a precise diagnosis.

Schizophrenia. Malingering. Antisocial Personality Traits. Borderline Personality Disorder. Histrionic Personality Disorder. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Factitious Disorder Munchausen Syndrome
Cause:
Ganser's syndrome is an unusual dissociative reaction to extreme stress. It has sometimes been labeled as malingering, but is more often classified as a factitious disorder. There is no single explanation for this disorder.

Factitious disorders in general usually attributed to underlying personality disorders; child abuse or the wish to repeat a satisfying childhood relationship with a doctor. Ganser syndrome therefore is a desire to avoid responsibility or an unpleasant situation. There also are physical problems that may cause the symptoms of Ganser syndrome. These include alcoholism, head injury and stroke. In many cases, the suffering of a major personal loss has also been implicated.

Treatment: Treatment is usually limited to recognition of the condition and the refusal to give unnecessary medications or to perform unneeded medical procedures. Some clinicians have tried psychotherapeutic treatment, and there are reports that antidepressant or antipsychotic medications may be helpful in certain cases.

Counseling and Psychotherapy: Supportive psychotherapy and/or cpounselling are the main elements of therapy for Ganser Syndrome.

Pharmacotherapy: Medication usually is not used, unless the person also suffers from Depression, Anxiety or a Personality Disorder.
http://www.psychnet-uk.com/dsm_iv/ganser_syndrome.htm

How many companies Export to Asia? & Why does my Ten year old Dream of having one of these?

Motorola finally launches U.S. Linux Phone

May 15, 2007Linux/Java has topped CEO Ed Zander's list of things to look for from Motorola as it attempts a financial turnaround. At a New York press conference this morning, Zander introduced Linux-based "Rokr" and "Razr2" models, along with new top-level executives.
Zander opened the conference by introducing a new CFO, and new VPs of products and sales. He said the company is working to reset its strategy, prioritize its markets and technology investments, and "put the 'Wow' back" into its devices. Referring back to a March investor call at which Motorola announced a $1B shortfall in projected earnings, Zander said, "We talked about three things to look for from our new strategy. One was Linux/Java -- today you'll see some products. Another was 3G -- today you'll see some products. The third was multimedia and messaging, and we've got some wild stuff there, too."Motorola announced plans to adopt Linux more than four years ago, but has shipped Linux phones in volume only in Asia and Latin America, to date.

That should change in the weeks ahead, as the company's Linux-based MotoRokr Z6 (formerly known as the MotoRizr Z6) rolls out around world.And, it should really change in early summer, as the world's second-largest handset vendor begins releasing the second generation of its flagship Razr line of fashion phones. Some Razr2 models will be based on Linux/Java, Zander revealed. Zander also hinted that Motorola's now-mature Linux-based Ming (a1200) touchscreen phone, a big seller in Asia, stands ready for the U.S. market, should Apple's touchscreen-based iPhone disprove the conventional wisdom that Western language users prefer keyboards.

Razr2 (aka RAZR2) Zander said that Motorola will sell its 100 millionth Razr phone this month, and that the company plans to stick with the brand for a long time. "The Razr brought style to the phone, which is one of the most personal products," he said. Zander called the Razr2 the "biggest technology upgrade" in the brand's two-and-a-half year history. He said, "Our Linux/Java platform will be available on some versions of Razr2, taking us to our next generation."
Motorola Razr2 Gallery Zander touted Razr2 hardware upgrades for reduced thickness, and added strength and smarts. He confirmed that Razr2 phones will use "monolithic" processors based on ARM11 and clocked at 500MHz. Other touted hardware features include high-speed USB 2.0, a steel frame with cast aluminum hinge, and new assembly techniques producing a more seamless look. "We've lost the Rokr's double chin," he said.Other touted Razr2 features include:

• "Crystal-talk" adaptive technology adjusts volume based on ambient noise
• Talking phone features for use by the blind, in cars, etc
• Ability to send pre-set messages in response to incoming text messages, without flipping open
• "Best music experience" in feature/fashion phone segment
• Full web browser
• 2MP camera with multi-shot feature
• Personal videoconferencingMore about the Rokr2 can be found in an eWEEK story
• MotoRokr Z6 (formerly MotoRizr Z6)

Motorola MotoRokr Z6 Motorola announced the MotoRizr Z6 in January, touting it as the first Linux phone to support all of Microsoft's Windows Media technologies. Now known as the MotoRokr Z6, the phone officially launches today, with global roll-out expected over the next several weeks. The Z6 has a unique slider form factor aimed at clearly delineating modality. In other words, "Closed, it's an MP3 player. Open, it's a phone," Dale said. Dale also called the Z6 "Our first true Linux/Java product," presumably a reference to the device's monolithic processor architecture, on which a real-time enabled version of Linux may provide both control- and data-plane functionality; earlier Motorola phones used VRTX or other real-time OSes on separate baseband processors to handle signal processing and run the cellular modem. Other touted features include:
PC song sync at 3 sec/song -- three times faster than Sony Walkman phones
Song storage on removable 2GB SD/MMC cards
Simple music management using Windows Media Player
X9 stereo bluetooth headphones included in European packageLots more about the Z6 can be found in our earlier coverage, here. Non-Linux-based Motorola phones debuted at the event included:
A Windows Mobile 6-based Q9, a slim smartphone shipping now in Italy, and elsewhere in Europe this summer
A Symbian-based Z8, dubbed a "media monster" for its videographic prowess

Just for Fun: The Bald Eagle is no Turkey

James Strong counts 34 references to the Eagle in the Bible’s New and Old Testaments, according to his Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible.

Eagles are mostly harmless to humans. They have been mistakenly blamed for killing livestock they could not possibly have. For this they have been wrongly hunted and harassed.

The roots of eagles go back in fossil history to the age of Pleistocene.

Eagle is the highest rank in Boy Scouts.

During courtship the male Bald Eagle loops in the air before the female.

The female Bald Eagle is larger than the male. She has a wingspan averaging 90 inches, while the male has an average wingspan of 85 inches. She is 37 inches long, and he is 34 inches long.

The Bald Eagle is protected by national law, and also by many state laws.

The Bald Eagle soars to great heights gracefully. Stories are told of it riding the draft of thunderstorms upward at great speeds, and heights.

The Eagle was a former gold coin of the United States that had a value of ten dollars.

Folk tales describe an eagle-stone. Supposedly, it is walnut sized ironstone, put in the nest of the eagle, to help in the hatching of the young.

In golf, a score of two below par on any hole played is called an Eagle.

Three Cheers from the Mitten

Vincenzo,

You represent the male leadership figure!!

That is the educated way of saying " u-da-maaaan-n-n-n!!" and from now on you are the "educated-man."

Congratulations from everyone in west Michigan! Rick Capotosto

Richard Capotosto

Zeeland, Michigan http://www.blogger.com

RC: I like that alluded phrase to Muddy'... You must be Muddy Roads, the long lost twice removed nephew from Motown.PD

PD: Guess again, Nacho. I will leave you now to the great endeavors you are destined to accomplish this day. Blessings and REAL parmiggiano cheese on you today!!Rick

Family Ties and Tenure

d2r2 said...
Congratulations Vinny, we are all happy for you and proud of you. Keep up the good work and think of this as a springboard to your future.

Congratulations to everyone in Bryan. You are special and I love you for all the right reasons. Here in the steamy, swamp we count mosquito bites and clean fungus from between our toes.

However, it is always a possibility we will gain enough sense to leave before we mold over.

The days are getting longer and our planet is tilting us into the sun like roasting marshmallows. Sweat not, you Anarcticans, your continent just lost enough ice to chill every keg of beer at every frat house in the U.S.A. Woe is us, guardians of the planet, it has only been here 5 billion years.

What is our tenure? Have we become so arrogant that we think we are able to rent asunder what God has wrought? Our doom isn't CO2, is it? Isn't it our own simple-minded greed and disobedience? We are God's children and he put us in charge of this orb, why don't we act accordingly?

Peace out, and remember to honor thy Father and thy Mother. You all are just too much, love you. DPD

The Day Of Truth

As everyone who has read the last few posts that I have made about my schooling, this should be the final post for that particular topic. As I took my practice tests and did really well caused me to move forward a week later to move and take the actual GED test. I took the first part of the test April 24th, which consisted of two tests, Reading and Writing. The writing part contained two parts just for that one test, first you have the multiple choice which is 50 questions and then the essay part which was incredibly easy. Day 2 on April 26th, which consisted of three test, Math, Science, and Social Studies. I did complete all of the test within the time limit that they give to finish each one, I also had time to spare in between the tests.

• During the time of taking the tests, I felt nervous even though I knew exactly what I was doing and all, but it was the fact that it was the last time that I would want to take that test in my lifetime. So basically what I'm saying is that while the test was going, I had this fear in the back of my mind that I wouldn't pass, only because it was the actually day I've been waiting for.
• After the hard part was done with all the tests, I have been trying to keep in touch with the school making sure that they have all of my correct information to get in touch with me when the results came in. As I kept calling and showing up, I still had not heard anything about my results, I was getting worried as the days passed. I called on last time on Tuesday May 8, 2007 to the school hoping for an answer whether I passed or not, like I said I felt confident but no too confident. When I called, I asked the lady if any of the results came in and she replied that they did check the night before but there was nothing showing, and I would get a call back by 10:30 A.M. that same morning. I pretty much waited until about 11 A.M. and just gave up, and then suddenly I receive a phone call from the school about 5:30 P.M. that same day, and what do you know, it's the school stating that I did pass my tests.
  
• When I received the phone call, it kind of went like this; "Hello, may I speak to Vincent please?" "Yes, this is him" "is this the Vincent that sold us raffle tickets?" "this is him" "is this the Vincent that has Dago tattooed on his knuckles?" "this is 100% him" "is this the Vincent that got his GED?" Are you seriously calling me to tell me I got my GED or did you call to mess with me?" But it all worked out and I did receive it, she had read me all of my scores and I was amazed at what I had accomplished in one month. She also had told me I would receive the actual certificate in the mail one to two weeks after the day week talked. I woke up this morning April 11, 2007 to an envelope on my chest while I was lying in my bed, it read the school's name on the top left corner of the envelope. I opened it up and it was a dream come true, the GED certificate that I have been waiting for that I have put all of my effort into for the past month. Now I have this big weight off of my shoulders after just getting the phone call, now I see that this opens every door for me in the future. Congratulations to me and thanks for all of the support that I have received from everyone who has put forth the effort to comment on all of my progress along the way.

Today April 11th, after I had woke up and got all excited over opening that wonderful gift that was lying on my chest this morning, I got dressed and raced over to the school to present my certificate and to show some gratification towards those teachers that really helped me make a difference in helping me relearn the things I needed to catch back up on. Thanks to all those five minute teaching sessions that were the best sources of learning for me one section at a time. Now I will move forward in life and I will be keeping up in here to inform what else is going on in my life as time passes.

Ville Hermanni Valo, by Desiree Darnell

H.I.M. and his Kin

Ville Hermanni Valo was born in Vallila, Finland, a suburb of Helsinki, on November 22, 1976 at 8:28 a.m. He was born with both Finnish and Hungarian blood. The Finnish blood came from his father, Kari, and the Hungarian blood came from his 'mum', Anita. In English translation, his name is 'William Herman Light'. He is thirty years old at this writing, April 2007.

Ville Valo has a younger brother by seven years, named Jesse. “In their childhood, as youngsters they would fight like cats and dogs", claims Ville. Before Ville had his little brother Jesse around, he had another sibling, Sami, but he wasn't human. Instead, this brother was a dog that his parents had rescued from a gutter.

Sami was a role model that taught Ville how to walk but didn't teach him how to use the bathroom all over the place. When Sami passed away, not only was Ville extremely upset, he also apparently developed his allergies to animals and asthma at the same time.

Now, since Jesse and Ville are grown up, Ville is very proud of the fact that his brother is a Thai boxer who has won the Finnish championships twice. Ville Valo believes his brother is going to be a great body guard for himself in the future.

Ville’s beginning of his musical career started in his home experience. All his life, Ville was exposed to music. His music-loving parents exposed him to the songs of popular Finnish performers such as Tapio Rautavaara and Rauli Badding Somerjoki, a Finnish rock singer. To calm him down when crying, his father would play Paratiisi, by Somerjoki. His mother would take him in her arms and dance. Baby boy Ville would slowly cease his crying.

When Ville was two years old, he went to a party and saw an Elvis impersonator. He picked up a bongo drum and started banging it while 'Elvis' sung. Then, when Ville was nine years old, he attended the Pop and Jazz Conservatory in Helsinki, introducing him to a few other music genres that he studied. Later on in life, his older cousin had introduced him to the heavier sounds of bands like KISS, Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden.

In school, Ville made very good grades and was very easy going during class. He was great with math and biology. But outside class he was a trouble-maker. He was known to be 'tough' and would often get in fights. During his middle school years, he had fallen in love with a girl who loved his best friend. That love triangle caused him to write his first song, changing 'everything' in his life as he continued writing songs. His interests gradually expanded to include reggae, early blues and country-oriented material such as Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison and Neil Young. Following great songwriters, he was preparing himself for a brilliant future, developing his own music genre.

Ville remembers being young and naïve when he went to a music store and picked out a KISS album. He was unfamiliar with the group or what the members looked like. He was curious what variety they were. The album's title was 'Animalize', and the cover had animal fur printed on it, which attracted the teenager. He then turned the record over and saw what the band looked like and how he had never seen anything like that before. It was then, when he realized that that was what he wanted to do, be something 'different'.

Ville then joined bands that did cover songs with some of their own things. The bands that he was in are: Helsinki-based bands: B.L.O.O.D., 1986-89, Eloveena Boys, 1987-88, Kemoterapia 1989-97 and numerous other, more obscure projects, such as Aurora; Charlie Parker; Terapia; Winha; Unga Kaskelottär; Natas; and Donits-Osmo. He has leadership qualities as lead singer, songwriter, as he also played the bass guitar, drums and guitar.
Ville formed H.I.M., His Infernal Majesty, in the summer of 1995, gathering together some old friends who shared his vision of a new kind of rock Ville himself calls 'love metal'. Since then, the band's members have changed a couple of times but Ville, Migé and Linde have been with the band from the beginning, and are accompanied with Gas and Burton.

Since 1995, Ville has had many different hairstyles, eye colors, and tattoos, including a pair of Edgar Allan Poe's eyes on his shoulder blades. On stage he usually wears jeans and either doesn't wear a top or wears a t-shirt. On his first singing performance, he wore brown corduroy pants, afraid he would have an 'accident' since he was so nervous
He has dark brunette hair, either green or blue eyes, is 6'2", and has a slim body. His hair is now cut short, but used to reach his shoulders. On appearances in videos, on you tube or in 'Viva La Bam', he usually wears a black heart-a-gram beanie. Some songs that hit the charts are;

Wings of a Butterfly and ‘Killing Loneliness' off of the album 'Dark Light', 2006;
The Sacrament and 'Funeral of Hearts' off of the album 'Love Metal', 2005;
Join Me in Death', 'Poison Girl', and 'Gone with the Sin', off Razorblade Romance, 2000.

Ville gets song writing ideas while sitting in the middle of a big pentagram on one of his floors. He also got the idea of his band's logo, the heart-a-gram, from the pentagram. Instead of a star in the middle of a circle, it's a heart and a triangle inside of a circle. The Heartagram is like a yin-yang -- opposite and complementary forces in Chinese thought, from Chinese words meaning shaded and sunny; signifying good and evil.

He writes Gothic lyrics with a lot of symbolism. A kind of symbolism that can inspire people to appreciate and express feelings. His music also lets people escape, move you, bring you to the verge of tears and leave their mark on you forever.