Make quality non-negotiable: Azim Premji

Thursday, 25 November 2004, 20:30 IST
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BANGALORE:Wipro czar Azim H. Premji Thursday urged captains of Indian industry to make quality non-negotiable - like integrity in life. Delivering the inaugural address at the 12th Quality Summit of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) here, Premji - also known as India's richest man - said quality was the other key driver of trust with stakeholders. "Like one's integrity, quality should also be made non-negotiable. Just as integrity has an immediate economic value, so has quality," Premji told some 800 delegates attending the three-day summit. Exhorting industry to measure quality only by the eyes of the customer, Premji said his years of experience in the field had convinced him that quality was not only a core driver of sustainable growth but also fundamental to it. "Realizing this fundamental truth, we at Wipro have always tried to practise and build the organisation where quality comes first. It is through this practice and many mistakes along the way we have learnt a few cardinal principles of quality," Premji stated. Advocating a rigorous process to anticipate what the customer required, Premji said organisations faced a major challenge in meeting the shifting needs of customers even while they face intense competition in offering quality products. "We must learn to live and practise that quality is a journey and not a destination. In my opinion, the sense of 'arrival' is quite dangerous. One must constantly keep on the path of quality. And if one stops, it will be the beginning of the end," Premji declared. Referring to the stringent quality standards applied in his global company with Six Sigma as the benchmark to achieve 99.99 percent success rate, Premji said quality must be integral to every part of any organisation. "We have to not only deliver defect free solutions to our customers, but also ensure quality in every process, every output and every endeavour," he noted. In this context, Premji advised the Indian industry to set the metric of 'customer complaint reduction' so that such complaints were reduced to minimal. "The basic fact is an entire organisation, including all its parts, systems and processes must be equal participants in the quality journey. Total commitment to uphold quality at any cost will alone make companies survive competition and market forces."
Source: IANS
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