First Published June 12, 2002 Updated Sunday, November 11, 2007 Is Quality Policy/Mission Statement Necessary ? "In the company of the blind, a squint eyed man is the King" - Hindi Proverb translated into English Of late, many organizations have joined the "Quality" bandwagon. There is not a single company in India 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. 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'. 'State of the art' is a jargon and is misused so much that it has no meaning now. Nowadays you have 'state of the art' 'Idli* Grinders'. What is state of the art about them ? A slight change in the shape of grinding wheels, which are more conical. Otherwise, everything else is the same. Customer satisfaction is not good enough. The present day customer has to be 'delighted', if you want to retain him. (* For the benefit of Western readers, "Idli" is a South Indian breakfast dish made out of rice and pulse dough, made after cold grinding. The dough is steamed into fluffy cakes. According to a survey done recently, it is one of the most nutritious breakfast dish in the world. Even people who are seriously ill can take it as it is absolutely bland)  Now let us come to the basic question of "What is quality ?" "Quality is an Attitude" We 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: Market focus Customer responsiveness Product/Service quality Speed Innovation Leadership 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. I have seen some ISO organizations where you will find desks littered with files and papers. Cobwebs hanging from the roof. Dust on corners of the tables, below the footprint of computers, wires covered with dust, cobwebs and hanging all over the place. I can go on but this would suffice. You will never find any Japanese companies in such a state. The first thing that is taught in Kaizen is cleaning up your desk or machine or computer or any other things in your workplace. Quality cannot be achieved just because you have quality mission, vision or mission 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.     ISO certifying organizations are supposed to be monitoring the organizations. But are they doing it ? With so many certifying organizations, it has become another business. For me, an ISO certified organization knows what is to be done but may not be doing it. In such a case, why strive to achieve the certification at all if you have no intentions of maintaining the standards ? Does it mean that organizations who do not have such certification, are not good enough ? I know some excellent organizations who do not have any certifications, but they can put any ISO organization to shame.  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. Written  by Madhavan T Gopalachary The views, opinions and interpretations are personal. Sponsorship does not mean that the sponsors endorse them. Editorial Policy © Copyright, Nov-07 . www.madgopes.com . Without prejudice. All rights reserved www.mmgindia.com is the official website of Madras Management Group, Chennai, India. www.madgopes.com and www.mmg.name are personal websites and all editorials are published under their banner to retain editorial independence. We would highly appreciate feedback from readers and it may be sent to ipr@mmg.name.