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Guru of substance

"India's first international quality guru', Madhav Mehra has a full agenda - encouraging the quality movement in the country while ensuring that it does not degenerate into meaningless claims.

Self-proclaimed quality gurus are a dime a dozen. And with their continuous attempts at one-upmanship, these showmen often steal the limelight from the real issues. Which is why people such as Dr Madhav Mehra are such a relief. If he is considered a pioneer of the quality movement in India and "India's first international quality guru", it is because his emphases on competitive awards and quality audit have given quality the palpability that must base any definition or appraisal.

This 'guru of substance' has a long list of titles to his name: president of India's Institute of Directors (IOD), chairman of the UK-based NQA Quality Systems Registrar and chairman of the Worldwide Quality Management Network (WQMN). Furfther, he has the distinction of having set up the first-ever quality company, Quality Management International, in the UK in 1974.

Mehra's first rendezvous with quality was way back in 1970s as joint director of the efficiency bureau of the Indian Railways. However, after a stint abroad, during which he completed his doctorate in management by objective (MBO), he decided to take a full-time plunge into quality.

The IOD was set up in 1990. It is a registered non-profit apex body of directors promoting the cause of quality in the country. The executive council includes such stalwarts as K Chhugh, Dr D K Modi and Pankaj Munjal. Mehra feels that the organisation was the answer to a pressing need: "There was a vacuum in India as we had no organisation focused on improving quality." Since his inception, the institute was involved in setting up quality clubs, publishing periodic journals and holding seminars and courses on quality. At present, the IOD has 1,500 members. Membership fees are low (between Rs750-1,800 per annum) and financial support is provided by seminars which bring in about Rs17,000per delegate.

Among IOD's major accomplishments is the annual World Congress on Total Quality. Five have already been held in India. The idea is to invite quality experts from various countries to discuss major issues in quality. Mehra explains, "Until now, there have been many people with many views on quality. Never was there any pooling of resources." He feels that a joint approach to quality is especially suited to developing countries such as India. "There is no point in reinventing the wheel. We should use the knowledge already available with us and avoid confining ourselves to the views of one particular guru."

According to Mehra, engendering a competitive spirit is the best way to promote quality in corporate India. Accordingly, IOD has instituted two awards, one for quality and the other for training - "The best way to achieve quality is to make companies compete for it."

The quality award, set up in 1991, is known as the "Golden Peacock National Quality Award". On the lines of the Malcolm Baldrige Award in the USA, it is based on the following criteria (in order of decreasing weightage): customer satisfaction, human resource utilisation, competitive benchmarking, organisational leadership, strategic quality assurance and suppliers quality progress. A committee of judges shortlists finalists and visits them to collect critical inputs. Previous winners include Kirloskar Brothers, Kirloskar Electric, Telco and Philips.

Mehra feels training should be separated from quality - thus the concept of a distinct training award. This may seem to militate against the idea of TQM. After all, isn't training supposed to be means towards TQM rather than an end in itself? Mehra argues: "I may take a holistic view of total quality but others tend to think that quality is no more than an ISO certification. Hence, the need to look at training separately.