The business of business is people

The biggest problem in today's quality movement is that some people in the business consulting field have drawn some ideas and concepts from W. Edwards Deming, while discarding others. The total effect of this has been to distort, dehumanize and detract from the quality movement. In Deming's view of the world, the interests of the employees and the shareholders were complementary, rather than antithetical. According to Deming, loss of market, and resulting unemployment, were seldom, if ever, foreordained or inevitable. They were management-made. To reaffirm quality in one's organization, one must promote the understanding that quality makes good sense from a business perspective, emphasize the need for incremental improvements as well as breakthrough achievements, and remember that the bottom line is people.