What exactly is "Quality"?
The word Quality can cause confusion, because it can have different meanings.
At the simplest level, used often by laypersons, Quality implies a goodness of character and an overall excellence, and perhaps expense. "Look at that Bentley-there's a high-quality car." But this meaning of the word is quite narrow and not particularly instructive for leaders and managers.
A more sophisticated definition of Quality involves a whole-systems approach to achieving excellence. In this view, excellence in business endeavors (like making a Bentley) results from carefully planned management systems operating interdependently to produce the intended outcomes. This is what is meant by the term "Quality Management Systems": the totality of business systems, such as hiring, planning, designing, producing, marketing, etc.-working efficiently towards a common end. There are many approaches, such as TQM, ISO 9000, quality award systems, six sigma, lean, etc., that embody this quality-systems approach.
At the highest level, Quality implies a personal commitment to excellence. This commitment results from a genuine, personal belief in the intrinsic merits of doing what's best, and doing it well, every time. This sense of Quality involves a mindset, and goes beyond structured programs and audits, which are management systems. People who are dedicated to Quality at this level do not employ it merely as a business strategy-they embrace it as a fundamental guiding principle in both their business and personal lives.
Quality and Customer Satisfaction
In the Quality viewpoint, the customer is main focus of the organization. Since the company exists to satisfy some customer need, and since customer satisfaction leads to profit and business continuation, it makes sense to focus almost to the point of obsession on customer satisfaction. This may seem simplistic, but often the size and complexity of business leads to an internal focus, away from the customer.
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Quality and Business Performance
In a recent national survey by the American Society for Quality, 92% of CEOs thought Quality had a direct impact on financial success. This is overwhelming evidence that successful, mainstream business leaders believe in the economic return of Quality. Quality helps reduce cost, monitor customer satisfaction, and develop efficiency in operations-all of which lead to increased profit margins.
Quality and Employee Satisfaction
Employees consistently rate "involvement" as one of the highest drivers of job satisfaction. Quality programs are universally participative, and take advantage of the overall organizational knowledge, rather relying solely on managers to make all the decisions. Quality programs lead to higher job satisfaction, lower turnover, more innovation, continuous improvement, fewer customer problems, and greater "brand" reputation.
Where does an organization start?
The best way to start is to assess where you are, and where your business strategy is or is not supported by Quality management systems. To be done well, a Quality program should spring from the real and personal commitment of top management. This is often done by instituting Quality practices and planning at the Executive Team level, and then rolling this out to the rest of the organization.
Quality approaches require long-term commitments, and personal commitments form the organization's leaders. These are significant undertakings, involving often-radical changes to the culture and management of an organization, and require years of support and nurturing. But in the end, it makes the difference between Good (or not-so-good) and Great.
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