MILWAUKEE, WI- ASQ will award the Philip Crosby Medal to Steven J. Spear for “contributing to the Quality Body of Knowledge by identifying observed, common organizational capabilities underlying the success of dominant organizations in varied sectors,” with his book, The High Velocity Edge. The medal will be presented during ASQ’s Annual World Conference on Quality and Improvement in Pittsburgh, Pa., May 15, 2011.

Steven J. Spear is a Senior Lecturer at MIT, and he is a senior fellow at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. He established himself as a thought leader on leadership, innovation and operational excellence with milestone articles such as Decoding the DNA of the Toyota Production System and Fixing Healthcare from the Inside, Today, a McKinsey Award winner from Harvard Business Review and one of several he's written about healthcare excellence in journals like Academic Medicine and Annals of Internal Medicine.

Spear works with organizations spanning high tech and heavy industry, design and production, manufacturing and services, and he speaks often at conferences. At MIT, he teaches in the Leaders for Global Operations program and also teaches the executive education course called Creating High Velocity Organizations. Spear is on the board of the Greater Boston Manufacturing Partnership.