The Hindu Business Line : Defining what quality is all about

NEW GLOW: Mr R. Shekar, Principal Consultant, Goldratt India (right), lighting the lamp as Mr S. Sridhar, ARGM (Circulation), The Hindu, Mr S. Sriram, Executive Director, Great Lakes Institute of Management, Dr P.T. Vijayshree, HoD-MBA; and Ms P.V. Madhavi, Principal, Kumara Rani Meena Muthiah College of Arts and Science, look on at the inauguration of a management meeting.

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Chennai Feb. 7 The famed writer Somerset Maugham once said: "A funny thing about life is that if you refuse to accept anything but the best you very often get it." Mr S. Sriram, Director, Great Lakes Institute of Management, sought to draw inspiration from the writer to illustrate his talk on defining quality at a seminar on `Quality management and sustenance' held recently at the Kumara Rani Meena Muthiah College of Arts & Science here.

Illustrating his talk by drawing on references to quality by a whole swathe of writers and management experts, Mr Sriram kept it simple with powerful anecdotes. Delving into history, he quoted Plato expounding on beauty: "We know it when we see it." That, he emphasised, is akin to quality: when you see something of quality you know it instinctively, no further definition would be required.While quoting Robert Pirsig, author of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, on quality: "Quality does not have to be defined, you can understand it without definition; it's a direct experience, independent of intellectual abstractions," Mr Sriram said that quality is relative but businesses have tried to define it to enable them to have a grasp on it.

There are eight dimensions to quality, he explained: Performance, freshness, reliability, conformance, durability, serviceability, aesthetics and perceived quality. He then traced the history of the quality movement the world over, defined as it is by quality gurus such as William Edwards Deming, Joseph Juran and Malcolm Baldrige.

Mr R. Shekar, Principal Consultant, Goldratt India, who also spoke, defined quality as transforming energy from the past to the future. Urging the students to participate in the discussion, Mr Shekar said quality could also be defined as a movement from complacency to ambition or from cowardice to courage.

Mr Shekar told the students: "If you do not think quality is meaningful for you do not pursue it." He made the point that quality has to be all-encompassing and from within for students to succeed in their careers.

Ms P.V. Madhavi, Principal, Kumara Rani Meena Muthiah College of Arts and Science, and Dr P.T. Vijayshree, head of the management studies department, were also present at the inauguration of the seminar.

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