Business and Quality

Business and Quality

Business and Quality are two complementary activities, two misunderstood and misused words. Let us study them separately, in conjunction, in controversial settings and current perspectives, and finally, the way out. Business – In the current way of understanding, business means making money. But by classical learning, business is doing one's activity. Remember – Mind your business. So ideally, this is one very individualistic thing. Even when we attend to personal needs (incredibly relieving ourselves), it is termed to carry out our business. So what is business from a BUSINESS perspective? Besides using words for individual needs – historical trading was termed a business. Then there were distinct works – farming, trading (Vyshy), artifact making (craftsmanship) for household or agriculture needs, and then fulfilling societal needs of children or society. As we rose in prosperity, trades like fitters, ironsmiths, etc., came up from CRAFTSMANSHIP. Then PROFESSION bore considered higher than trades people like lawyers, judges, engineers, doctors, etc. After trading goods, one trader brought some tradesmen into a group and managed to give rise to industry. Business came up much later when management word came in. Essentially business still means carrying out individualistic activity – now a group helps to carry it out. Quality – Initially, when artisans started working, like potters, ironsmiths, coppersmiths, etc.,metthe functional needs of kitchens, society inns, or palaces. Then as per the taste of the need generator, they improvised on aesthetics, material, shape, and beauty – Quality slowly started coming in. We still give massive value to functional aspects. Still, the ordinary person provides excellent credence for aesthetics and finesse part to Quality. Before we move on – we must understand the loss/waste process. Nature always has a built-in waste process. About 20 – 30% goes to waste whenever we eat fruit or vegetables. Though this is biodegradable and there is little cost (that also now) against the gain, this is never thought of. So classically, waste was in-built into the way of life to conserve the effort of trades people, artisans, and laborers, and all efforts were made to respect that. But natural waste was acceptable then and, to some extent, even now. Business and Quality: In today's world, we say business cannot sustain if Quality is not taken care of – why - because Quality is our business. As regards the business of a business person – it remains individualistic pursuit with which he started. He wishes to fulfill some function with a retail value to get him some return. In the process, if Quality is essential,he pays attention to that. Still, theprime objective remains – understanding the functional requirement, transaction with the customer, transaction intricacies, and the transaction itself. Quality back in producing goods or Quality throughout is what we inject to compete with him in his business, which he wishes to safeguard subconsciously. Way out – A business person is arrogant in meeting customer needs. So also, we are complacent in supportingthe Quality of the product that will meet that functional need. Instead,suppose we deflect our attention to make him understand better than functional condition through the quality lens and say that our business is simply translating the customer's operational need (CTS) into implementable language for your team to work on (CTQ). In that case, the journey will be of complementing each other. We can ask for a better share of consideration than what we get. Incidentally, there is one more element. That of CTP that those older tradesmen and artisans turned production team work at. We want to breach and could do successfully through lean, six sigma, process improvement, etc. Now most of our focus is on CTP improvement; we need to work on the CTQ side, and then we cry for not getting the attention of business owners. Way out: Besides jargon, foreign concepts, principles, and knowledge that we gain meticulously over the years – all that is needed; we must humbly first respect business people. Tell him that we want to help him. Tell him what your business is and convince him that your business is to better his business and is not in conflict with his business. Talk to him from CTS, then bring it to CTQ and very subtly let the production team work on CTP themselves – then tools, etc., can be devolved slowly and subtly. When we go to sell tools, we miss the attention of a larger business perspective and instead become tool sellers; then, we aspire for respect as business owners!!! Yogesh Jain, Director Niche Quality Solutions Private Limited, Indore 9303205440, 8989573663 Yogesh@nicheqs.com and nichecon@gmail.com