Quality management is not playing its full role in society if it gets stuck exclusively in narrow considerations about products and production. That parochial approach to quality management leads to what Theodore Levitt, in his outstanding article published in 1960, Marketing Myopia2, described as ‘product provincialism.’ Product provincialism is a dead end. For, and perhaps this is why we must all really think differently, it is futile to chase quality production for non-quality societies. Quality is an eternal and organic aspiration for serious societies.
Quality cultures upgrade society
Quality, at its most useful, is about securing the long-term health of society. How do we, using all the resources of our intellect and energies, liberate the productive forces in order to improve living conditions in our country – for the majority of our compatriots? This, it seems to me, is the historical task facing the living generation of Africans and Ghanaians.
Whatever attitudes, systems, mindsets, laws and regulations, educational models, media, governance approaches, behaviours, and consequently, culture that drive the emergence of a wholesome civilisation – sustainably so and for the long-term, that is what Quality management is about. It is through ensuring, in all that it does, a society values, cherishes and upholds quality, that sustainable development is achieved.
This is why it should be difficult to see how societies can say they are championing quality when their physical environments are dirty, unplanned, haphazard and disorganised. We cannot ignore the palpable and pervasive conditions of anomie that make life a tortuous existence for so many of our fellow citizens, while we retreat into comfortable but esoteric and abstract realms to discuss quality. Thinking differently about quality will necessarily involve asking, and hopefully finding answers, to some difficult questions about our collective existence as a society.
High quality cultures in society manifest as, in addition to some other things: clean neighbourhoods, green environments with thriving flora and fauna, and clean water bodies. The smell of the air in such societies is rejuvenating and energising.
Amilcar Cabral3 was more than right, in his deservedly and oft repeated poignant remark: ‘Always bear in mind that the people are not fighting for ideas, for the things in anyone’s head. They are fighting to win material benefits, to live better and in peace, to see their lives go forward, to guarantee the future of their children .’
We must never, even in the middle of a tortuous battle for progress and advancement, forget Cabral’s instructive injunction when we discuss quality development in society. It is not enough to fixate on progress only stated on spreadsheets – as bland financial metrics – when the very quality of our lives is deteriorating. This requires what one of my friend’s aptly calls a Mindset Revolution.
In which aspect of our lives, of our collective existence as Ghanaians, can we sincerely say that the achievements made so far, are such that we can show them off as examples of world-class quality anywhere on the globe? Not even in sanitation, health care, education or food self-sufficiency, can we do this. We are plagued by mediocrity, regrettably even in basic things like, land management (which is today in dangerous chaos in parts of our country). On law and order, the entire system for the delivery of administrative justice in Ghana is stretched to breaking point at this stage. Consequently, people, often the rich and powerful, get away with shocking crimes – in this governance system I call a Santa Claus Democracy.
The Santa Claus democracy is systemic dysfunction. As quality assurance practitioners know all too well, where there is systemic dysfunction, we can only get out of the rut by improving the system holistically – not through episodic focus on some selected symptoms. This is a fundamental truth in all the major schools of quality management that have emerged.
It should be no surprise then, that, in 1978, when Deng Xiaoping and his team decided China needed to step up significantly in order to improve the quality of life for all, they pursued a holistic and well-coordinated programme on multiple tracks. They called this ‘The 4 Modernisations,’ calling out priority areas of focus in granular terms, as:
AGRICULTURE (Improve productivity through mechanization, better farming techniques, and rural reforms)
INDUSTRY (Modernize factories, increase efficiency, and introduce market-oriented practices)
NATIONAL DEFENSE (Upgrade military technology and capabilities to ensure national security)
SCIENCE and TECHNOLOGY (Invest in research, education, and innovation to support all other sectors).
Through determined leadership, more than a billion Chinese were mobilised behind this plan. They together executed, in my view, the greatest economic transformation that has ever been recorded in human history, one that lifted hundreds of millions out of poverty.
One can point at Lee Kwan Yew’s insistence in Singapore that the state had to intervene in very personal matters – including personal hygiene, as another such example. People who are serious and determined work hard – holistically, comprehensively, creatively and in a determined manner. Their focus for transformation is always long-term.
To raise quality standards and build a truly sustainable high-quality culture throughout a society takes hard work and determination. But it also takes consensus on what constitutes a high-quality society. What do we agree on in Ghana, when our major political parties seem unable to agree on anything – other than that which benefits their principal actors as individuals? And these days also on demonstrating bipartisan solidarity when it comes to calling on bereaved VIPs to express condolences at funeral ceremonies? Whether those funerals be the one day, one week, one month, one year or one decade ceremony! Where is our jointly owned living, organic, long-term development plan – one which can survive multiple electoral cycles?
So how, in such a fractious environment of political incivility, can we ever manage to progress sustained quality improvement efforts that yield positive society-wide impacts?
We in Africa and Ghana must define for ourselves what we mean by QUALITY. We must certainly learn from all experiences and knowledge that we can find anywhere in the world, for we are a part of the globe, and all global knowledge must be ours too. But it is only we who must study our historical evolution, concrete conditions, and circumstances, to produce the best solutions suited for our societies. The Akan proverb says it all: Obi ntumi nto Ananses?m nkyer? Ntikuma.
Whatever we decide to do, we must also wage war on mediocrity. The knowledge of excellence and a true motivation to attain it, are what, when all is said and done, quality is – or should be about. We must free the search for quality in Ghana from parochial provinces of product experience and customer service, to think differently about quality. That is the path to greatness. Wherever quality thinking has made a lasting and sustainable difference to a society, it has taken on the status of a concrete civilisational ambition to attain and achieve a higher and fairer culture for all. This is why so many people speak about a Quality Revolution.