We all use word “Quality”, but what does it mean? There’re a lot of descriptions we can find on the web, and this fact stresses that it is not a simple term.

Let us guess that the meaning of the word may depend on the context, and on the position and personality of “appraiser”. Statements about “high quality” or “low quality” may mean nothing to you if you do not understand matters being told about. Consumers used to look for and desire “high quality” and suppliers used to base their competitive advantage on the Quality as one of major distinctions of their products, services and corporate culture. But the good question is - do end user, the customers, need that quality being focused on by suppliers (e.g. do ISO certificates automatically mean that output production is of appropriate Quality as perceived by customers)?

If we would look to the theories of Quality and their applications, we will see that they penetrate all the aspects of our lives: from fully applied for technology products to more sophisticated for services and business management. Another theoretical model in wide use is Quality-gaps model (see p. 10). However, words are nothing if they do not work – thus let’s look at how Quality is articulated and implemented at HP.

At its web site, HP states it is “providing products, services and solutions of the highest quality”. Does quality apply to products, services and solutions only, or is it just an apex of iceberg we are told to look at? To understand, let’s look deeper to the history of HP.

“This Old House” story narrates that Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard were identifying name of HP with Quality, articulating it as one of Values the company is built on. Another source is legendary book “The HP Way” (pp. 121-125). It states that quality of products was essential from the beginning simply because HP was producing testing equipment used to test and benchmark another equipment, thus by default HP had to make products of extraordinary quality, otherwise it would not be able to compete and win DOD’s contracts.

Let’s think for a minute – is quality appears by itself in the output products? No – good quality products can only be built in environment when quality is everywhere, in input materials, in design, in production processes, and in people.

There’re 7 HP Shared Values; they cover many aspects of the work and life of HP employees, as well and other individuals and organizations HP having relationships with. All these values are historically the integral part of The HP Way, which was founded and fostered by Bill and Dave and was recognised as the novel way to manage people and enterprise. These Values underpin current organizational competitive advantage.

Let me please make an attempt and draw on the picture below how I see Quality is penetrating the background of each Value.

Figure 1. The HP Compass

You may have another vision of application of Quality to the life, IT market, and specific organization, and you are welcome to put your thoughts into the comments.

Post of Sep 5, 2007