I believed with a movement over 40 years in the making would have congruence and convergence in its meaning and interpretation? As I started ruminated over an experience, I wanted to know if etymology of the word ‘Quality’ and whether it reflected a penchant towards the producer or the consumer. I was pleasantly surprised, when I visited Wikipedia for the etymology - From Middle English, from Old French qualite, from Latin qualitatem, accuative of qualitas, from qualis (of what kind), from Proto-Indo-European pronomial base *kwo- ("who", "how"). It is believed that
“Who”, “how” – Yoo Hoo! I thought to myself… the proclivity is definitely towards the consumer, the user, the “Who”, and “How” she or he chooses to use, apply or merely CONSUME the product. I have been a long time believer in the fact that quality is what ‘the consumer’, ‘the customer’ makes or perceives of the product or services (I do remember some text book definition from my engineering days). As for me ‘the producer’ or ‘the purveyor’ may believe or think highly of the goods and services BUT if my consumer does not place the same or enough value in their quality of the merchandise means nothing… nada!
While I felt good I did feel a little uncomfortable about ‘the’ experience. I recently spent time with an executive who believed that ‘quality’ is their diligence and effort invested in the products and services they offer and as long as the performance indicators identified upfront were met and or exceeded the “promise” had been kept? I must say I beg to differ! All I had to say was lets stop focusing on QUALITY and start focusing on the CUSTOMER, the CONSUMER let her define the standards, let her define the baseline and quality will happen! Quality is truly the price of entry not a value-add unless we operate in a monopoly.
