Rejoinder

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Acknowledgments

Besides the well-deserved acknowledgments already made in the article, I want to take this chance to thank once again both LZD and GV for having provided a very insightful set of comments. And also to recognize continuous support provided by the guest editors, who also gave me the opportunity to come up with this rejoinder. All of the generous comments and kind remarks, coming from people that I have always highly considered as role models in the world of applied statistics and quality management, such as Ronald Does, Geoff Vining and Bradley Jones, are the best recognition I might get. It is rewarding to see how they respond so positively to these retrospective thoughts over six years of my life spent mostly as a politician, and this makes me realize that it was really worthwhile going through this adventure. I hope that their comments can also be seen, together with my article, as words of encouragement for other statisticians and quality professionals to get more involved in politics and in helping politicians. This is one of the most powerful ways for societal decisions to become better and better at overcoming the complex challenges that our countries are facing right now and will have to face in the future. Are we up to these challenges?