Market is only true judge of quality

interesting event as the two days yielded good results for the three of us. As usual there was a winner.
The eventual winner was Newton. The rubbers he used during the tournament were thought provoking.
He had very old and partly torn “ugly” looking rubbers. The kind of rubbers I will never think of buying.
Though I had different colours I had fairly new rubbers. After the weekend a debate ensued with other bass fishermen.
Are bass interested in new or old rubbers? Do bass get attracted to old rubbers than new rubbers? Are rubbers like wine, which gets better with time?
I actually undertook a desktop research to find out whether old rubbers perform better than new rubbers.
The results of the secondary data showed that old rubbers do not perform better than new rubbers as such.
However, bass is just attracted to the colour and certain shapes of rubbers on a particular day.
The tendency among fishermen is to think that rubbers, which are attractive to the fishermen, are also attractive to the bass.
Most fishermen also think that new rubbers are good rubbers because they appeal to them.
Two weeks after my fishing expedition, on my way home there was a discussion between two passengers that were abroad the same commuter omnibus I was travelling in.
The discussion started when one of the two passengers, a bald-headed man, pointed out how the Chinese were becoming wealthier by the day.
The boy who was sitting beside him responded by pointing out that it was because they were taking advantage of the poor Zimbabweans.
The bald-headed man then asked the boy if he did not like the products that the Chinese were selling.
The boy responded by saying he liked them but that they were “zhing-zhong” and were of low quality.
“Their shoes are not as durable as the pure leather shoes that we are used to. Their lifespan is as low as five days. Their clothes are the same. These are rip-offs,” he said.
To which the bald-headed man responded: “How come these ;rip-offs’ keep convincing the cheated people to keep coming back to them? ”
At this juncture the elderly woman sitting next to me said: “The Chinese are getting wealthier because they are supplying the Zimbabweans what they want.”
This was food for thought for me. I started to draw similarities between my fishing experience with Chinese entrepreneurship.
The fisherman who supplies bass with bait that the bass wants succeeds. The bass fisherman who snares the bass with the bait he likes and not the bait that bass likes, fails.
The Chinese succeed in Zimbabwe because they supply Zimbabweans with clothes that are fit for the purpose.
They use slightly cheaper material for the clothes they manufacture so that they are affordable.
The market wants these goods because they are value for money. From the perspective of Zimbabwean customers are producing quality goods. From the perspective of the bass Newton was using quality tackle.
What is quality?
Manufacturers define quality from what the market wants using measurement aspects like aesthetically pleasing, durable and style.
This is exactly what the clothes and shoe manufacturers in Zimbabwe believe. Their belief sadly has not been matched by a vote of confidence by the consumers whose “wants and needs” they purport to serve.
Most manufacturers and service providers in Zimbabwe have a conviction that people do not know what they want.
In their minds they have to provide customers with solutions they think can work better for them.
They behave exactly like a bass fisherman who thinks that bass do not know what is good for them.
The Chinese believe clothes and shoes are like “consumables” in Zimbabwean market.
The Chinese believe that in low-income markets clothes and shoes should be treated as event driven (such as a suit which last for one or two days occasion) or like disposable diapers. This strategy seems to be working favourably for them.
This points to the fact that quality is something, which is fit for a purpose. Quality is what the customer wants.
If a customer wants a suit, which lasts two days and a manufacturer produces a suit that lasts three days, that is quality.
In fact, the manufacturer has exceeded the customer’s expectation by a day. Therefore, quality is defined as consistently meeting or exceeding customer expectations. This implies always meeting customer expectations.
This is a basic truth about business. The customer is always getting smarter. As the fable illustrated, the company that gets smarter about customers will take business away from the company that only pays attention to itself.
What is the evidence of quality?
After everything has been said and done, the evidence of a quality footballer is seen by how much a club is willing to part with to purchase such a player.
In addition, by how much the club is willing to pay the player weekly. This valuation method can also be expanded to include the number of products the player endorses, etc.
Chinese indeed produce quality goods because worldwide people are clamouring for their goods.
Their goods are the best sellers throughout the world be it in USA, United Kingdom, Russia, Australia, New Zealand or South Africa.
On a national level their balance of payments (exports minus imports) position was US$40,9 billion for the first of 2010 (www.safe.gov.cn).
Recently, they have overtaken Japan as the second biggest economy in the world.
Before the advent of the Japanese, American car manufacturers such as General Motors and Ford used to dominate the car manufacturing industry.
Their unique selling appeal was durability, comfort and speed. They assumed that consumers were obsessed with the need for a very durable car.
However, the Japanese came in with a car which was reliable and easy to maintain.
Whereas Americans depended on specialist designers for the different units of a vehicle, Japanese used cross-functional design teams who would give each other progress reports.
Given these differences in approaches Japanese vehicles became easier to maintain.
Where American cars require 100 different types of bolts Japanese cars would only require three types of bolts.
Currently, Japanese vehicles are still dominating the car sales industry because the Japanese were able to connect with the needs of the customers better than their American counterparts.
The market is the only true judge of quality not the academics or the so-called “expert”. The most reliable reputational agents are the customers.
l The writer is a managing consultant at CLC Training International. E-mail [email protected].