Such a Long Journey

In the days when historians assumed that history, began with Greece, the Greek historian Herodotus recorded the first known reference to cotton grown in India: "Certain wild trees bear wool instead of fruit, which in beauty and quality excels that of sheep; and the Indians make their clothing from these trees"

Arab travellers in the ninth century India reported: "In this country they make garments of such extraordinary perfection that nowhere else is there like to be seen ... sewed and woven to such a degree of fineness, they may be drawn through a ring of moderate size:'

But weaving was only one of the many handicrafts of India. Europe looked up to Indian expertise in almost every line of. manufacture: wood-work, metal-work, bleaching, dyeing, tanning, soap-making, glass-blowing, gun powder, fireworks, and cement. Much of the gold used in the fifth century BC came from India.

Ashoka's famous many-pillared hall in his palace at Pataliputra was partly dug out by archeologists about a century ago. In his official report, Dr WA Spooner of the Archaeological Department of India stated that the hall was "in an almost incredible state of preservation; the logs which formed it being as smooth and perfect as the day they were laid, more than 2,000 years ago:' He further added that the "marvellous preservation of the ancient wood, whose edges were so perfect that the very lines of jointure were indistinguishable, evoked admiration of all those who witnessed the experiment. The whole structure was built with a precision and reasoned care that could not possibly be excelled today .... In short, the construction was an absolute perfection of such work:'

The art of tempering and casting iron was developed long before its known appearance in Europe. Vikramaditya, for example, erected in Delhi (circa 380AD) an iron pillar that stands untarnished even after 16 centuries. The quality of metal, or manner of treatment which has preserved the pillar from rust or decay, is still a mystery to modern science.

Centuries later, the industrial revolution taught Europe to scale up manufacturing operations more economically, and Indian industry faded into obscurity - being unable to stave off the competition.

The incredible growth of worldwide competition in the past 50 years - led at different times by American, German and Japanese companies - has shaken modern business to its very core. The prime movers for the success of these companies have been reliability engineering and customer-focused management. People around the world thus have access to quality products.

In India, quota raj ended two decades ago. Internationalism has substantially replaced isolationism. Customers now have choices in a wide range of sectors: automobiles, garments, electronic goods, processed foods, computers, software, TV channels, hotels, hospitals, schools, and much more ...

During an interview in 1994, quality guru Dr JM Juran was asked: "Dr Juran, how would you rate corporate India's commitment to the theories and practices of total quality management?"

Dr Juran's response: "Much depends on whether that term is even understood by Indian companies. I think it is a very misunderstood term, not only in India but in various countries throughout the world. All it really means is a collection of all the things that we must do to have quality leadership. But the list has not been standardised ... My opinion is that in the US, the best are the criteria in the Baldrige Award:'

Another question to Dr Juran: "Which of these criteria would you identify as the most important?"

Dr Juran: "First, senior managers must personally take charge of leading change relative to quality. If they try to delegate that they will not get good results. The second important factor is the training of the management hierarchy on how to manage for quality. Then there is the idea of undertaking to improve quality on a revolutionary basis. Firms across the world have developed processes for control of quality, for stabilising things, preventing adverse change. But none of them has developed processes for creating beneficial change for improvements .... in the sense of reducing costs and improving processes so that we do not take as long to meet customer needs - we have been derelict."

Yet another question: "Is it likely that the history of not having been forced to compete may have created a mindset in Indian companies that is opposed to embracing quality practices? How significant a hurdle could such a mindset present?"

Answer: "Mindset is a very difficult thing to change. I think the official name is cultural resistance. And that's a very powerful force. It relates to the way people are brought up as children. In a place like India you have a culture that, in many respects, has sharp differences with the West; to the point where many are absolutely mystified by some of them. They think they are superstitions. But they don't realise that some of the things that they do look like superstitions to people from India. And, in some ways, the superstitions of the West are greater than the superstitions of the East. That applies fully to trying to introduce change in a company where you have numerous cultures. Product development engineers have a culture different from that of the finance people and the like. Each of them has been subjected to brainwashing, if you want to call it that. Each of them develops what anthropologists call a pattern of culture: a selection of beliefs and habits and practices, things they must do - the rituals - and the things they must not do - the taboos:'

Around the same time, in 1994, Qimpro Consultants partnered with the Juran Institute to conduct Baldrige self-assessment exercises for Tata Steel and Tata Motors at Jamshedpur. The senior managements of each of the two organisations proved ruthlessly transparent. On a scale of 1,000, Tata Motors rated itself 210; and Tata Steel ISO. The rest is history.

In 1994, the.JRD Quality Value Award was founded by the Chairman of Tata Sons, Ratan Tata, based on the Baldrige criteria. Over the past two decades, the JRD QV process has become a global benchmark for implementing performance excellence.