World Class Management

Providing excellent product and service quality has become a key to success in competitive international markets. The level of quality expected by many consumers continues to increase as leading competitors raise their standard of quality. In response to the demand for higher quality products and services, a number of Indian companies are adopting new management practices. The term “world-class management” is often used to describe these pratices.

World-class management (WCM) is a key approach to the art of management. It seeks to improve product quality and increase customer satisfaction by restructuring traditional management practices. The application of WCM is unique to each organization that adopts such an approach.  However, based on a review of current global management literature and on my observation of a number of Indian companies that have adopted WCM, it appears that a consensus has formed around the attributes that are common to all WCM organizations.  This consensus is also reflected in the criteria used in the IMC Ramkrishna Bajaj National Quality Award.

An essential attribute of WCM is the general understanding that the customer is the final arbiter of quality.  WCM is based on the premise that quality is driven by and defined by the customer. Product and service attributes that create a perception of quality in the customer, will increase customer satisfaction and, ultimately, increase customer demand.

Strong quality leadership is a key attribute of WCM. Many of the management practices and principles that are required in a WCM environment may be contrary to long-standing practice. Only a strong leadership team focused on quality improvement can overcome the inevitable inertia and resistance to change by creating clear quality goals and developing the systems and methods for achieving these goals.

Continuous improvement, a fundamental attribute of WCM, arises from a philosophy that all business operations and work activities can be done more efficiently. It requires the development of a management approach that encourages identifying and seizing on-going opportunities to improve.

Another important attribute is a willingness to measure quality constantly and to identify and correct conditions causing poor quality.  WCM is based on decision-making that uses reliable information and analysis. A number of statistical techniques have been adopted to support this process.

WCM environments allow all employees to participate in helping achieve organizational quality goals. All employees are held accountable for quality and are given tools and training to fulfill this responsibility. WCM is based on the assumption that the employees closest to a particular organization’s daily operating procedures are in the best position to understand and improve the quality of those procedures.

To date, winners of the IMC Ramkrishna Bajaj National Quality Award have been Vikram Cement, HDFC, Infosys and Thai Acrylic. On studying the four, we discerned that six interrelated features consistently appeared in the companies’ WCM efforts that contributed to improved performance. These features involved the following pratices:

• Corporate attention was focused on meeting customer quality requirements
• Management led the way in disseminating WCM values throughout the organization
• Employees were asked and empowered to continually improve all key business processes
• Management nurtured a flexible and responsive corporate culture
• Management systems supported fact based decision making
• Partnership with suppliers improved product or service quality.