Quality in Latin American Small Business

As American Society of Quality (ASQ) CEO Bill Troy mentioned in his blog Why Should Quality “Go Global”?, thanks to the ASQ and various quality leaders like Deming and Juran that have spread the word, quality has been impressively improved in countries like the US, Japan, Canada, Australia, Germany, England etc.
Results are visible in big companies like Toyota, but what about the small and medium size enterprises or SME’s? What about startups and fast growing companies? 

Quality in small business

In Latin american countries, basic quality principles like planning or doing things right the first time are rare in the SME’s vocabulary. In Argentina there is a National Quality Award and an Excellence Team Award, but during the last years no SME’s have been presented.
Owners of small and medium size businesses have these great ideas. They usually focus on the product and how to sell it. They are experts on something but they don’t care much about the structure of the company, they  lack of knowledge about planning, accounting or even human resources.  They are aware of that so they look for experts to manage these subjects, but they are not quite aware yet that the quality consultant can help them put all the parts together. 
All the startups invest in social media experts, but how many invest in quality management?

US vs. Argentina in 8 words

Looking forward to finding a theory that includes all the issues an entrepreneur deal with,  I have been working in developing a model to help them understand the basics in their own language. Only 8 areas that can be used for applying basic business planning, ISO, an excellence performance framework or the 14 Deming principles:  Planning, Leadership, Customers, Process, People, Suppliers, Results and Contonuous Improvement. 
I surveyed both Argentinian and American business owners considering this model, and the results showed that on 6 of the 8 areas, american companies were clearly in better shape.

Next step

I believe the ASQ has done a great job in sharing quality knowledge among the experts in the quality field all around the globe. In fact, I am not american and I am still part of the ASQ Influential Voices. ASQ offices and partnerships in Mexico and Brazil are part of that knowledge sharing. Neverthless there is still a lot that can be done to get the entrepreneur’s hearts in Latin America. 
The ASQ and all its members, We all as a team, can start small, “project by project” as Juran would say, just talking to our friends and neighbours. For sure some of them have their own business or have a friend of a friend who does. We can be the means to let them know what the quality field can do for them and make them see the benefits of “starting a business right the first time”. Let’s start the buzz!! 

As business owner, what would it be your suggestion?

Luciana.paulise@biztorming.com.ar
CEO Biztorming Training & Consulting