When I was a sweeper in a Paris lithography print shop from 1974 to 1976, I sometimes had to rub two very heavy stone slabs for hours to create the texture for lithography. One day, renowned French painter Lucien Fontanarosa who?d come there for his lithography and knew me as a painter, was very sympathetic seeing me, a skinny artist engaged in hard labour. He raised my spirits saying the duplication I was sweating over was very noble work.
Route to industrial duplication = QCW (quality customers want): Fontanarosa explained how duplication first came from German Johannes Gutenberg?s invention of the printing press around 1440. Gutenberg made it possible to precisely duplicate written words in large quantities for people to communicate far and wide. Then in 1796 Bavarian author Alois Senefelder invented a method for duplicating paintings through lithography copy by using stones or metal plates. French inventor Joseph Nic?phore Ni?pce produced the first permanent photographic image in 1826. Then American Thomas Alva Edison invented sound reproduction in the phonograph, 1877. The departure of duplication for industrial production improvement was introduced by American mechanical engineer Frederick Winslow Taylor. His famous Taylor System in the assembly line at Ford Motors changed industrial efficiency for all time. From here to the vinyl disc to Xerox, cassettes, Microsoft to the iPod, a huge industry has been created for large scale reproduction. In the backdrop of such inventions, the biggest headache Western companies had faced was introducing an uncontestable quality parameter. They had to ensure QCW across geographies would always be met. Actually this mass industrial duplication ended up as globalisation. Reproductive power was transferred from the West to Southeast Asia, first Japan, then Korea and Malaysia, and now China is the big manufacturing hub churning out high quality duplication. The quality of the duplicated product is often not visible to customers during purchase, but without QCW, a brand will never gain global acceptance. So it?s clear the inventive Western reproductive model simultaneously addresses quality through product durability in its lifecycle. Southeast Asia is excelling in quality reproduction. Will India always remain the user only for lack of quality duplication ability?
In today?s digital world, the QCW concept for industrial duplication has totally changed. From providing durability and functionality in the mechanical era, the quality customers want today is better user interface through innovations. Also, digital duplication is easy and cheap now, and in fact can make a bad sound copy into a good one by erasing noise, or cleaning up the background of a picture. However, as industry is still largely physical manufacturing oriented, industrial duplication will continue to need QCW oxygen.
Mathematical quality system is stale, not QCW
Indian companies often make quality processes boringly routine, akin to pure mathematics which merely gives a count, and never did deliver anything by itself. Mathematics when driven with physics, chemistry and economics has changed the world through human intelligence and inventions. QCW is that vast chemistry-physics-economics combine of the customer?s spending logic and pattern. Traversing its multiple avenues can change a company?s perception, like Samsung?s meteoric rise within 20 years to acquire top-of-mind in consumer electronics across the world by delivering the QCW value. Upto 1990, people only knew of Grundig, Philips, Sony; now even Sony expects to sell out 50% of its stake in an LCD joint-venture to Samsung.
Leaders unnecessarily force an inside-out approach
Often your company?s quality system may compel you to follow an ?inside-out? approach which you may not like to disturb as it puts you in a comfort zone. At the same time you?ll be asked to create differentiation in your product or service delivery for better market share, growth and profit. The root cause of why many inventor companies like Polaroid or Kodak in the photography print domain have become obsolete is sedimentation in their QCW delivery. Today?s digital technology world is bringing newness every fortnight. Only an ?outside-in? approach cannot measure up to market reality commanded by QCW. The QCW quotient is changing rapidly too as customers are experiencing products and services from diverse trend setting industries such as mobile phones, cameras among others.
Be sensitive to the unseen side
QCW also means addressing areas that are not visible or apparent. In different engineering workshops I?ve taken an expensive brassiere to demonstrate how women are ready to flaunt money on the quality value to get tremendous inner comfort and beauty in a garment that?s not exposed to the public. Why do women spend on non-visible fashion? This just proves that a product?s hidden glamour can evoke extreme hedonistic desire. The inner finish of products often lacks QCW. If you were to lift the smart seat of a stylish car, and it doesn?t look as terrific on the inside, wouldn?t you be disappointed? These industrial duplication areas require huge improvement in India. As do mass service areas like toilets with imported German sanitary-ware in our new malls and airports that you cannot enter because of the stink from poor maintenance. So service that has to be reproduce-able also has a front and reverse side, and both merit to have QCW.
The unseen part of the product or service creates customer trust, ?I believe in it,? bringing in repeat purchase. “It works well for me” is the customer?s functional usage advantage while ?It looks good? is the emotive pull. From stone lithography to carbon copy, cyclostyling, photocopy to digital scan reproduction shows that functional excellence upliftment with better technology easily makes the old obsolete. My priority in working for Indian companies is to sensitise them to make the QCW (rational) attribute as infallible for industrial duplication products and services. Duplication is an inherent part of business so driving QCW practice with latent trends into your industry will always be relevant to bring the future near and create the next mark.
Shombit Sengupta is an international creative business strategy consultant to top managements. Reach him at http://www.shiningconsulting.com
