India, June 11 -- At the turn of this century, the most intelligent boardroom conversations revolved around a single obsession: efficiency. The language was clinical, precise, mathematical. Waste reduction. Defect control. Process optimisation. Lean systems.

I remember walking into the meeting where Six Sigma was to be introduced. Our CEO asked if I knew what it stood for. In those pre-Google days, I reached for common sense and humour: 'If it's American, it must be simple." As it turned out, the very first line of the presentation read: "Six Sigma plugs the hole in the bucket." We made eye contact and laughed. But beneath the simplicity, the concept was powerful.

Six Sigma became the gold standard of industrial discipline. If you were ...