Quality Culture vs. Traditional Culture There are various differences between a quality culture and a traditional culture. While formulating strategies and implementing quality culture, you need to understand these differences and plan accordingly. In this assignment, you will evaluate the difference between a quality culture and a traditional culture. In a 2- to 3-page Microsoft Word document, address the following: •Select and evaluate a company (with which everyone in the class should be familiar) based on the following parameters: ◦Operating philosophy ◦Objectives ◦Management approach ◦Attitude toward customers ◦Problem-solving approach ◦Supplier relationships ◦Performance improvement approach •Based on your evaluation of this company, explain if you think your selected company is following a quality culture or a traditional culture. Provide an appropriate rationale and examples to support your answer. •Given your evaluation of the company, explain whether you believe that its culture will enhance or impede its success. Support your responses with examples.

Organizations that develop and maintain quality culture will differ significantly from traditional culture companies and the difference will be quite palpable .Major araes where you will find the difference are described below

1) OPERATING PHILOSOPHY

Org's with traditional culture work with sole aim of return on investments(ROI) OR short term profits Methods used to get these profits in the short period negate the brand image of the company in consumer minds .Here exrcutives in their urge to sell will dump products which might be od sub standard quality in to the market and in the long run this will make brand lose consumer loyalty .It might also cut back on equipment maintainance ,employee benefits ,performance incentive schemes .

Whereas in org's where quality is the hallmark of their operations or culture and their core operating philosophy is customer satisfaction .They always look for ways and means to exceed customer expectation though in the short term it may hit their revenue but in the long run it will have indelible mark on consumer mindspace and brand recall.This is the key for lonf term survival and prosperity

OBJECTIVES

Org's with traditional cuture have short term objectives spanning few weeks or few months but where as quality conscious org's have long term objectives and they plan their objectives very strategically and they do it for longer period of time for years or may be a half a decade.

MANAGEMENT APPROACH

In traditional cultures it is top down approach employees are not supposed to think and henceforth they work as machines and simply follow the instructions of their bosses word to word .Quality cultured org's bosses take the role of coaches or mentors and it is bottom up approach ,All their strategies are alligned towards customer which they get as feedback fropm their employees on the ground .

Attitude towards Customer

Traditional cultures they think inward about themmselves rather than customers ,whereas quality cultures will think not only about customer satisfaction but they will look to out grow and achieve customer delight .

Approach towards resolving issues

Traditional cultures have lot of finger pointing and no sense of ownership towards the org and everybody tries to pass the buck at the next person ,no body takes responsibility whereas quality cultures not only try to figure out the root cause of the problem and its symptoms ,they make sure that they mitigate this issues permanently thru discussion ,deliberation and decision among their employees and working as a team .Teamwork and coordinated approach is the hallmark of quality cultures

Vendor relationships

In traditional cultures vendors are seen as cost inflationary elements there is no relationship building with them and .their profits just don't matter .Quality cultures have a contrasting approach to wards their suppliers as they consider them as partners and their profits is seen as profiot to the org itself .there is a sense of comaraderie when dealing with vendors and they try to create a mutually profitable and long term sustainable relationships

Here it reminds me of atwo indian companies in the consumer electronic space during the late 1990's AKAI AND VIDEOCON .AKAI had a very traditional approach towards biz and it s only philosophy was to sell the product by hook or crook w/o any long term relationship with the market so it worked for few years and went in to oblivion of historical pages .In contrast Videocon had a qualty approach towards its consumers with timely innovations suiting customer needs and gaining market share and brand recall in the long run .its most sold brand was BAZOOKAA WHICH WAS A BIG RAGE AMONG THE SOUND CONSCIOUS INDIAN CONSUMERS .Also it maintained very relationships with dealers which helped the org to sustain during sluggish market trends in the long run

thanx and regards

Oluseyi