Quality. This word is often associated with products and companies. Most brands and companies have created a ‘perception’ of quality around their names and products. To the extent even countries have ‘perception’ of quality about them.

 

Just to have a feel of this, let us start thinking of some names – Toyota, Honda, Indica, Apple, Samsung, Taj Hotels, Ashoka Hotels, Air India, Jet Airways, Emirates, Reliance, Chinese goods, Japanese goods, Korean products, Japan, Singapore, Dubai, Karachi, Delhi, London, Kolkata, UP, Mumbai, Chandigarh, Delhi Metro, Mumbai local train, Unitech builders, Lodha builders,  Parshvanath Builders, DDA housing, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, State Bank of India. This list can be endless. But each of these names generates an image of ‘quality’ surrounding it. And the choices that we make have a huge bearing on the ‘quality perception’ that we have about the product, service or even the country. If similar cars made by Toyota and Tata are on offer at the same price which one would we buy? For same tariff plan whose services would we prefer – Reliance or Airtel? For same holiday budget which country would we prefer – Singapore or Malaysia? In every case a big differentiator is quality that clearly defines our choices. ‘Quality’ not only has a price but is significantly is about the ‘quality’ of thinking, the mind-set, the DNA of the organization, the quality of leadership and people of a country – the culture.

 

But the reason I thought of writing on this issue is not to expound on virtues of quality of products and services created by commercial organizations.  It is about the people who we see and meet everyday in our lives – you and me, and the ‘quality perception’ they generate in the minds of others. Even more important than that is the consciousness that we have about the ‘quality that we think and deliver’ by our actions rather than judging the quality of output of others. I may be wrong, but I don’t see quality consciousness about ‘our actions’ in vast majority of us in India. Quality is not about the cost but about thinking and attitude. Like in the previous articles on my thoughts, I find that the best way to express myself is to give some examples from our everyday lives.

 

I was once watching an old television interview of the man who is Prime Minister of our country today – Narendra Modi.  In those days he was not known to the country and was not holding any official position in the government. Like most of the committed workers of RSS, he used to live a spartan life which didn’t have any place for common luxuries. There wasn’t much of money around and he had to manage within a small budget. When asked about his pleasures and things he liked he said that he only had one small habit that gave him pleasure which was to wear good clothes. Good clothes for him were kurta pyjama which were also few in numbers. But since he liked good clothes, he himself washed and ironed his clothes everyday to be worn the next day.  Quality was never about cost and money. Quality was always about thinking and attitude. And it reflects in the personality and actions of the person in majority of the aspects. We can therefore understand his focus on ‘Swacchh Bharat’, his dress sense even now, his eye for detail in governance, his not spending any money in renovation of the PM’s house when he moved in after becoming the PM etc. Focus on quality is there to be seen in everything and that does not necessarily mean increasing costs.

 

Few years ago I started observing that there are some people in my team who were good in their work. They consistently delivered superior results. But then in any organization it is only to be expected. Where was the surprise? Surprise was that these winners were winners not only in their measurable work but in most aspects of life. So, their desks were normally clean, more often than not they dressed well, they were fastest to reply to the audit queries, their presentations were crisp, they kept their offices tidy and generally had a positive attitude. It didn’t stop there. If ever I had a chance to sit in their cars I found them to be well maintained and clean, homes were well kept irrespective of luxuries inside them. All these people were conscious of the quality of their actions in almost everything they did. They didn’t compartmentalize their actions where on one had they delivered quality and on the other had they didn’t. A clean car didn’t depend either on the price of the car or the quality of work that he did in office. Quality was always about thinking. When thinking is about quality, it reflects everywhere. Yes, exceptions are always there. I being an engineer who has lived in hostels, know that there are some gifted people who are very brilliant in studies but have a very poor dress sense. They can come to formal meetings in bathroom slippers also. But such people are far and few and exceptions. In their case it is not about quality in general but brilliance in a specific field.

 

Right from my childhood I’ve been observing the way people keep their homes. I observed that comfort in one’s home was not with expensive things but with love and care and cleanliness it reflected. So there were many lower middle class homes which were cosy, comfortable and clean. They reflected positivity in the house. The food they ate was simple and they may be having only one vegetable in a meal, but it was well cooked, delicious and served with love. On the contrary I also saw many households that had best of everything inside them, but were not well maintained. There was a layer of dust everywhere, things strewn around and it was difficult to find a clean place to even sit. I’ve encountered situations in some households when I found it difficult to drink even a glass of water because  I wasn’t sure if the glass was clean or not or the residents were not drinking directly from the same water bottle or not. So on one hand we have lower middle class people who keep their households tidy and are well dressed when they step out of homes, and on the other hand we have moneyed class that are just not bothered about quality in their lives. In fact in India I have observed that people buy expensive homes, spend lot of money on interiors and do up tastefully, but when we see the place after few months we find that things had become quite bad. Money bought expensive things, but to maintain them, keep surroundings clean, make things cosy and welcoming we needed an attitude we needed a thinking which is about ‘quality’. We can all test this hypothesis by a simple observation. Let’s try to identify three well-dressed men and three women around us. Then for men we check their work area and offices and for women the way they kept their homes. Chances are that out of six, if not all of them, at least 4-5 will have clean offices and homes. That’s what is called about quality of thinking in them. It will also be interesting to go little deeper in their psyche and see what things do they buy, how much they buy, at what prices they buy and what quality they buy. Suddenly we will start witnessing similarities here also – not too many, quality is as important as price and generally buying what is needed. Quality will start reflecting everywhere, including how do they read and fold the newspapers every morning. Quality is about thinking, about attitude and about consciousness.

 

Business organizations are always conscious of the money they spend. More often than not budgets are always tight. General belief is that more we spend better we get. But since ‘more spending’ is not possible quality of services will necessarily suffer. But then we also see managers who are adept at providing quality stuff at lower costs. Just like we see some housewives who are always short of budget and some others who not only manage beautifully within the same budget but also save a part of it, we have managers who deliver quality output in everything they do at lower costs. They have certain benchmarks for quality which they will never compromise. If the budgets are too tight, they may reduce the quantity or the numbers, but will never lower the quality for sake of quantity. I recall a discussion when we were fondly remembering one of our ex-CEOs. He was a stickler to quality in life, irrespective of expenses. It didn’t matter to him if the expense was from his own pocket or at company’s account. His quality standards had to be met. Someone commented that he was a lion who may eat less of meat but will never eat grass. Indeed, he was quality conscious in everything he did in life. Though he was a smoker and used to smoke in his car also, I could never see any ash in his car and there was no smell of smoking. Best part was that he delivered quality results for the organization, had long term vision and thought strategically. Quality was always about thinking, about attitude and about consciousness.

 

My thoughts on the subject of quality will never be complete if I don’t write that quality has a lot to do with culture. And this culture has to be inculcated and sustained ‘consciously’. So Japanese as a nation are quality conscious. When we speak about Chinese products we know what comes to our mind. All great organizations that have maintained quality had to first develop a culture. There’s no better example than service organizations like hotels and airlines. So Taj hotels or Oberois have a great culture of quality customer service. So is the case with airlines like Indigo or Jet airways. As a customer we can be rest assured about the quality service by all their employees.  A household that radiates positivity and maintains quality can’t do that by the efforts of one person. It has to become a culture of that place. Once that happens, whether it is an airline, hotel, country or a household, anyone coming there from outside will also follow the same culture. It will become easier to sustain it rather than disrupt it. Quality, to my mind, on a sustained basis needs an enabling, appreciating and sub-conscious culture.

 

But then it is also said that there must be a balance in life. All said and done, good quality has a price to be paid. Sometimes that price may exceed the rewards. As I wrote in one of my previous articles, in a commercial organization quality improvement incrementally keeps becoming more expensive and at times it is better to choose lower quality. For example to have zero defect product in every 1000 units and one out of 1000 defective may make very substantial difference in costs. It may be viable to accept one faulty product out of every 1000 and exchange it in case of complaints. But when it comes to human life, whether in high end medical equipment or manned space crafts, no cost is higher. Human life is sacrosanct, it is too precious. This is where the judgement comes. I have also seen households where the focus on cleanliness is so high that it becomes suffocating to be there. A clean home should still be a cosy home and not a museum or a five star hotel.

 

My Little Thoughts Of Life in this respect are crystallized as follows:

• Quality consciousness in our mind has much larger impact than what we would like to believe
• Focus on quality plays a very important role in the success of individuals, organizations and nations
• Quality doesn’t mean high expense, but a better output which may be at a lower expense too
• Quality is difficult to be compartmentalized, often times, it is all pervading. Either a person is quality conscious in everything that he does or he is not
• Quality is not about importance of tasks. It is about all tasks, big or small. It is about all aspects of life
• Quality is a culture. To have sustained benefits it has to transcend individuals and become a part of the collective psyche of a people
• And finally, quality is not only to be demanded but also to be provided by our own actions

 

To my friends and readers I wish a greater consciousness for Quality in their lives.