There was a man who lived by the side of the road and sold hot dogs.
He was hard of hearing so he had no radio.
He had trouble with his eyes so he read no newspapers.
But he sold good hot dogs.

He put up signs on the highway telling how good they were.
He stood on the side of the road and cried; “buy a hot dog, mister?
And people bought.

He increased his meat and bun orders.
He bought a bigger stove to take care of his trade.
He finally got his son home from college to help him out.

But then something happened.

His son said, “Father, haven’t you been listening to the radio?
Haven’t you been reading the newspapers?
There’s a big depression.
The European situation is terrible.
The domestic situation is worse.”

Where upon the father thought, “well, my son’s been to college, he reads the papers and he listens to the radio, and he ought to know.”

So the father cut down on his meat and bun orders, took down his advertising signs, and no longer bothered to stand out on the highway to sell his hot dogs.

And his hot dog sales fell almost overnight.
“You’re right, son” the father said to the boy.
“We certainly are in the middle of a great depression.”

Hat Tip (HT) to Neil Mattson for the link.

My sister is a quality control guru. She recently started a new blog on the subject, which I thought insightful, so I am sharing her first post with Making Cents readers. See below.

I believe that for companies to succeed now and in the future, organizations need to focus on quality management principles. So what are characteristics of a company focused on quality? A good question and I’m glad you asked. 🙂

These companies will have the following:

1) A total commitment to continually increasing their value to customers, investor and even their employees.

2) An understanding that market driven is quality defined by the customer not the company

3) Commitment to continuous improvement and communication

4) Understanding that sustained growth requires success of four key factors: a) customer satisfaction, b) cost leadership, c) effective human resources, d) competent supply base

5) Commitment to improvement through knowledge, skills, problem solving and teamwork!

Typically, if the above is part of a company’s culture, the accounting metrics will fall into place. One thing that you notice is the mention of “customer” in several of these. Unfortunately and not always accurately, the assumption is that the customer also has these same principles and acts accordingly. As we all know from experience, this is not always the case, so we have to also take this into account when trying to determine and define what customers value.

The second thing that you might notice is the mention of the need for improving. Every move toward a global marketplace (from local to regional to national and ultimately to world markets) increases the level of competitiveness between organizations. As we continue to compete globally and the players in the global market increases, there will always be a need to improve because there will always be another organization out there trying to outdo or outmaneuver us. We should never get caught thinking that being close to perfect is good enough.