Business management manuals often liken the concept of quality to a “devastating weapon” which should be used as a “powerful and effective” part of company strategy.
This is an undeniable fact. Competitive strategy is always based on one of these two parameters: price and/or differentiation.
When the products being sold are homogeneous, the customers will usually go for the cheapest one, and when they are differentiated, the price issue, accordingly, becomes less crucial. Any company which pins its success on the price factor alone, doing everything to keep its costs down – to the detriment of the quality of its ingredients and the care taken in their preparation – will soon be caught in a downward spiral with disastrous results. It is common for restaurants with financial problems to drastically slash their costs by serving smaller portions and using less-than-fresh or second-rate ingredients. This almost always goes hand in hand with a decline in the quality of service, since, as soon as the staff realises that “the ship is sinking”, they begin to project their dissatisfaction onto the customers. The customers, in turn, are never long in detecting the atmosphere of hopelessness – although by the time the restaurant finally closes its doors, they will have already taken their custom elsewhere. Inversely, there are cases of restaurants in trouble which take the opposite course, striving to upgrade the quality of their food and service. Theoretically this is the wisest course, but it can easily backfire if not handled properly.
It is basically counter-productive to primarily think of quality in economic terms. We would be definitely starting out on the wrong foot if we were to let ourselves be guided by profits, let alone short-term ones. The road to quality must begin with a vision, a high level of motivation, the wish to achieve the satisfaction of a job well done, with one’s sights set on the future and the long term, and with a firm determination to reach the highest possible levels of professionalism. Economic success will come on its own, and when it is finally achieved, we will realize that it was not really what counted most
It is often – erroneously – argued that quality has the effect of increasing costs, which in turn lead to higher prices and the consequent loss of competitiveness. This is precisely why the latest quality management techniques (TQM or Total Quality Management) which are designed to act as an instrument of competitive strategy, are ultimately aimed at reaching their objectives while, at the same time, increasing profits. What really matters is not the cost – which, rather than increase, should in fact decrease – but the difference, in our favour, between the overheads and the revenues.
