Principles of Management - Week # 15

Chapter 17 - Organizational Control and Quality Improvement.

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On this chapter we have discussed:

- Types of control and the components common to all control systems.

- Organizational control from a strategic perspective.

- Four key elements of a crisis management program.

- Five types of product quality.

- The difference between providing a service and manufacturing a product.

- TQM - Total Quality Management principles.

- PDCA cycle and how it can improve the overall management process.

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Some personal thoughts.......

I want to talk a little bit about Service Providers and TQM.

Since I have worked for 8 years as a service provider - I know what it's like to work with customers. I have worked in the tourism business, mainly with American and Canadian markets. My clients were NOT easy to deal with. I appreciated the great awareness of Americans to quality of service. When they paid for a service - they expected to get a hundred percent out of their money, and I can understand that. My job as a service provider was to make sure they get a hundred percent of what they paid for. However, my service depended on others to do their job well too. Sometimes it just didn't work. My lesson was to predict such possible "crisis" in the future and make sure it does not happen again. The awareness of quality of service is very important if a business manager wants his business to survive in this highly competitive world. If you do not provide excellent service - your clients will choose someone else to purchase services from. And competition is high and agressive.

Total quality management - TQM - is something that was carefully implemented in the last place I worked for in Israel. "Eshet Incoming" management did its best to reassure clients will get the BEST service, they even guarentee it on their web site. http://www.eshetincoming.com/

The company was very customer oriented and encouraged the tour operators to be ones too. It motivated employees to create team work and help eachother. It encouraged excellency as a way of living.