Competitiveness and TQM: is the synergy really a surprise?

Summary form only given. Media reports about today's successful enterprises increasingly scoop out one key factor-the proximity of these companies' management practices to total quality management (TQM), a distinct socially transmitted pattern of behaviour. This paper examines what makes TQM so different, its dividends, and why a company-wide obsession focused on satisfying customers, internal and external, leads a company to a stronger competitive position. Four essentials characterize TQM, as follows: top management's direct involvement in the delivery of quality; an uncompromising customer orientation; company-wide participation in the attainment of customer satisfaction; and the use of systematic methods used in resolving quality problems. TQM requires nonstop effort to eliminate tasks and processes that are nonvalue adding as far as the customer is concerned. Such savings are the "bottomline" benefits of TQM that the business can enjoy-even if there is no competition. But then, if whatever we produce must satisfy the internal and external customers and we produce nothing else, then we produce no waste, rework or redress. Then we do not have to raise prices to recover the cost of such waste from the customer, the goodwill we build here being the added edge in the marketplace. This strengthens the company's competitive stance, underscoring the synergy between TQM and competitiveness.