A quality mindset

My sister is a quality control guru. She recently started a new blog on the subject, which I thought insightful, so I am sharing her first post with Making Cents readers. See below.

I believe that for companies to succeed now and in the future, organizations need to focus on quality management principles. So what are characteristics of a company focused on quality? A good question and I’m glad you asked. :-)

These companies will have the following:

1) A total commitment to continually increasing their value to customers, investor and even their employees.

2) An understanding that market driven is quality defined by the customer not the company

3) Commitment to continuous improvement and communication

4) Understanding that sustained growth requires success of four key factors: a) customer satisfaction, b) cost leadership, c) effective human resources, d) competent supply base

5) Commitment to improvement through knowledge, skills, problem solving and teamwork!

Typically, if the above is part of a company’s culture, the accounting metrics will fall into place. One thing that you notice is the mention of “customer” in several of these. Unfortunately and not always accurately, the assumption is that the customer also has these same principles and acts accordingly. As we all know from experience, this is not always the case, so we have to also take this into account when trying to determine and define what customers value.

The second thing that you might notice is the mention of the need for improving. Every move toward a global marketplace (from local to regional to national and ultimately to world markets) increases the level of competitiveness between organizations. As we continue to compete globally and the players in the global market increases, there will always be a need to improve because there will always be another organization out there trying to outdo or outmaneuver us. We should never get caught thinking that being close to perfect is good enough.