Do you know what’s really going on in your overseas partners’ and suppliers’ plants? Are you sure? Many companies are unable to answer with a confident yes. That’s bad news. In a time when companies are focused on getting more for less, it’s time to remember your Ps and Qs—“P” is for product, and “Q” is for quality. If you aren’t certain that everything possible is being done to ensure the quality of your products overseas and at home, your brand is at risk. So are your profits. In fact, so are your customers, not to mention their children and pets.

Just ask the companies involved in recent scandals: Menu Foods, the Canadian pet food company whose contaminated products affected numerous cats and dogs; Colgate-Palmolive Co., whose brand was sullied due to a contaminated “counterfeit” version of its toothpaste; and various retail stores that had to pull some popular Chinese-made toys from their shelves due to the presence of lead paint. In all of these cases product quality slipped, resulting in public-relations nightmares and real risks to public health.

The leaders of these companies would no doubt agree that if there were a 100-percent foolproof way to ensure the quality of their products, they would take it, no matter what the price. There’s no such thing as “foolproof,” of course, but you can reduce your chances of having your products contaminated and distributed, and transparency is the magic word.

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