I’m having that conversation with my bosses… again. I am promulgating the notion of reaching out to industries and audiences that we really aren’t engaging. However, more than once I’ve been told that the quality industry is a very narrow niche. To this I say, “Horse pucky!”

I believe this viewpoint illustrates a mindset that holds many companies back from realizing their full potential.

Quality is not a niche. Quality is not a department. It’s not an event or a seminar or a goal. Quality isn’t lean, Six Sigma, 5S, or control charts. Quality is planning, building, and serving—in any industry—as close to perfect as possible, and as near to prescribed parameters as possible. To create a quality product or service, quality must first manifest as a closely held belief, a way of doing business; quality can’t be an attitude or a feeling or a mood. If quality isn’t fundamental in a company’s entire process, it’s painfully obvious in the output.

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