Who cares about quality? The Solution.

Welcome back to the quality quiz from our last Friday noon memo. Here as promised the solution for the sources of our three quotations:

1. "Degree to which a set of inherent characteristics fulfils requirements." is a quality definition from the International Organisation for Standardization ISO.
2. "Number of defects per million opportunities." comes from Six Sigma, a methodology seeking to improve the quality of process outputs by identifying and removing the causes of defects (errors) and minimizing variability in manufacturing and business processes.
3. "Quality in a product or service is not what the supplier puts in. It is what the customer gets out and is willing to pay for." was stated by Peter F. Drucker, one of the most important management thinkers of the past decades. See our recent blog about him.

The first reader with three correct answers was Mirko Böttcher, London. Congratulations! Mirko receives a 25% discount voucher on one month of our Process Mentoring Program.

Final thought:

Neither all quality definitions, nor all methods are equally appropriate as guiding principle for a successful business management. Be careful not to over-stretch methods primarily coming from production systems – such as ISO and Six Sigma – for managing a whole organisation.

A too close focus on the avoidance of errors can be great for production lines and at the same time disastrous for people's creativity and entrepreneurial thinking. There are much better ways to manage an organisation as a whole, and Peter Drucker is just one of several adequate sources.

Comments welcome!

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