Is Quality Policy/Mission Statement Necessary?
Of late, many organizations have joined the "Quality" bandwagon. There is not a single company which is not trying to implement some ISO quality certification program or TQM.
The IT industry has its own SEI-CMM and PCMM levels and certifications. As a result, many organizations put up their "Quality Mission Statements" in the reception. Let us study one such statement given below:
"To strive to become a preferred supplier of the state of the art -------- products and systems, while achieving full customer satisfaction and monitoring profitable growth"
This is a good statement, though I would prefer to rephrase it as:
"To strive to become the preferred supplier of ------- products and systems and ensuring customer delight"
What I have done is to replace 'a' with 'the', removed such phrases like "State of the art"
which is nothing more then a jargon. I have also replaced 'customer satisfaction' with 'customer delight'.
I have removed 'monitoring profitable growth' completely because quality and profits are linked and it is stating the obvious.
Now let us go into the reasons for this change.
1. You have to be the best in your class and cannot be one among the many. There is a lot of gap between 'a' and 'the'.
2. 'State of the art' is a jargon and is misused so much that it has no meaning now.
3. Customer satisfaction is not good enough. The present day customer has to be 'delighted', if you want to retain him.
Now let us come to the basic question of "What is quality?”
"Quality is an Attitude"
I would like to quote late Dr. W Edwards Deming:
"Good quality does not necessarily mean high quality. It means a predictable degree of uniformity and dependability with a quality suited to the market"
Core issues of quality:
1. Market focus 2. Customer responsiveness 3. Product/Service quality 4. Speed 5. Innovation 6. Leadership 7. Team work Many organizations concentrate on item 1,2 & 3, but ignore the rest. TQM principle encompasses all the above. Once they achieve their ISO certification, many organizations slide back. I have come across various such organizations. The reason is very simple. They focus on the product or service or market but ignore the other critical areas. Others are people skills. Quality cannot be achieved just because you have quality statements. It is an attitude and a way of life. High degree of self discipline, involvement, commitment, zeal, hard work, leadership skills, speed, innovation, team spirit and the desire to excel is necessary, to be world class.
To conclude, quality is all in the mind and our attitudes. One phone call or a visit to any organization and talking to the telephone operator or receptionist or some manager gives more insight than such certifications. I visited an ISO certified organization just a few days ago. The brass letters at reception read “ REC P I N. The missing letters had fallen off and nobody had bothered to replace them. The guest toilet flush was not working and the place was stinking. What surprises me is that how is it I notice such small things. May be something is wrong with me.
© June 2007. www.madgopes.com. All rights reserved.
To learn more about this author, visit Madhavan T Gopalachary's Website.
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Madhavan T Gopalachary
(Visit Madhavan's Website)
Madhavan Gopalachary, nick name "madgopes"
(g pronounced as in go) given by IIT
classmates, is a Mechanical Engineer and
an alumnus of Indian Institute of
Technology, Madras having passed out
specializing in IC Engines &
Thermodynamics.
He has nearly 35 years of experience in
the Corporate World. He started off as a
trainee and handled sales, marketing,
manufacturing, product management, profit
center management, strategic planning and
corporate development including R & D in
various organizations and at various
levels before becoming a CEO. His last two
professional assignments were at CEO level
before embarking to start management
consultancy business on January 01, 1998.
He has worked for British, Swedish MNCs as
well as very large Indian business houses.
He has spent a large portion of his time
from June 1998 till date in East African
Countries practicing as an independent
Management Consultant.
More details can be obtained at the
following web sites:
mmg.name/
mtg.html
mmgconsu
lting.biz/
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