An awful lot is said and written about quality. Most companies are certified according to ISO 9000. From top management down everyone waves the quality banner in front of the customer. But then, the extent to which the objectives indicated and the procedures established in the manuals possessed by all certified companies are effectively pursued, is another matter. As a sales manager I have always believed the quality of the product and service the customer is prepared to pay for should be achieved and possibly exceeded, if you want to grow in the market. Logic would tell us that after committing many resources in order to certify one's company, everyone would play their own parts to reach the company's efficiency, service and product quality objectives, which should have been reasonably and freely established. My experience has brought me to often discover - for a variety of reasons I certainly do not wish to deal with here - that at least a good part of what the manual expresses remains unheeded. And I am talking with my sales manager's head, not as a quality man which I have also been; this second was during my military service as lieutenant of the aeronautical engineers at the technical supervision office of the military air force in the Aeritalia plant at Turin. If I was to talk with my heart of the quality official of that time, I would employe harsher terms in evaluating the average attention to quality by companies, because in aeronautics, quality is a question of life or death for one's pilot colleagues: it is therefore taught to you as something which you absolutely must not compromise on. Luckily for companies, quality defects rarely have such an immediate lethal impact, but very quickly, poor product quality can lead to the premature demise of the company. Having said this, I think you will understand my satisfaction when called to President Mrs. Gabriella Pasotti's office on my first day at La Leonessa. She had called me to impart a couple of aspects especially dear to her. The first concerned the need for more formal training in some new employees of the sales department. This, because they are daily reference point for customers which we want to be treated with maximum attention and the courtesy they deserve. The second aspect, but not in order of importance, was this: as the quality manual established, we would shortly have to make an assessment of the third quarter in terms of the attainment of the company objectives set for 2006. She informed me that the attainment of the same was believed to be of fundamental importance to top management. A very good beginning , given that I am convinced that if a company wants success in quality terms, then top management absolutely must be the first to demonstrate its commitment to its own quality system.
