Quality - Getting to First Principles

Quality. A buzzword that gets tossed around like a small boat in a hurricane. Without a rigorous plan, it results in lots of motion, not much direction and usually ends in real structural damage. Let's remove ourselves from consultant speak for a moment and take a top down view of the role quality plays in the world of business/disability and how focusing on quality can help both business and individuals with disabilities leap forward in their journey towards productivity and measurable success.

Let's first put some parameters around quality in a business context. Quality is defined as the 'degree to which a set of inherent characteristics fulfill requirements', according to the International Standards Organization. In layman's terms, to what degree does a product/service/process do what it promised to do?

Business is beginning to understand the massive potential that lies in the disability space. In a market that boasts 1.1 billion potential consumers globally; first movers will find a gold rush. An estimated 90% of that 1.1 billion have invisible disabilities, meaning no wheelchair, white cane or hearing aid. The macro-level demographics are stunning. At minimum, there is $1 trillion in annual income put to work by people with disabilities in the US economy alone. Those of us with a global perspective can do the math on the market potential.

So how does quality impact the business/disability space? To be quite blunt, it doesn't. The typical approach by most in this space is to quote the above paragraph and wait for investment to come running. That's akin to standing on your local beach holding a paper cup, waiting to catch a tsunami that may or may not come. The consequences of this approach are obvious, you will probably be dry for a very long time, and if the wave does hit, well...I hope you can swim.

Quality dictates a different approach. In a strategic context, quality demands that one must step back, assess the market, and determine what the market wants before one jumps into the fray. After all, how is one to assess whether or not one has 'fulfilled the requirements' if one neither understands what those requirements are, nor how to measure them?

Within global corporations, disability is ad hoc, meaning it is not part of an ongoing process that is viewed internally as material to the bottom line. Let's be clear, that legacy is ok. Historically, corporate disability activity has been driven by parents of people with disabilities and has been funded through firm's philanthropic activities. It has, until now, been 'a nice thing to do'. This legacy approach will never lead to material marginal growth for shareholders. Ergo, change is required.

Disability is the largest emerging market on the planet, bigger than China. Once that becomes rule, senior corporate leaders are incented to put disability into a context of quality, the framework in which most things get done within a well-run organization. They are incented simply because is it in their interest to grow their company. An untapped market of this size means material opportunity for most, if not all, profit seeking entities.

The path to quality begins by clearly outlining the market and its desires. Once the customer is understood, successful businesses are very good at developing process that walks from a stated goal to a realized goal. Along the way to that goal, a business measures its progress to a quality benchmark over time.

This is not happening in the business/disability space...yet. A few firms are just starting to understand the opportunity. These firms are wrestling with how to deconstruct ad hoc legacies, replacing them with robust process and benchmarked outcomes. This process is integrated within the organization, owned by line managers who are rewarded based on measured results. This is a roadmap most senior managers should be familiar with...it’s how business works.

In order to access the massive potential in the business/disability space, organizations must put disability on an economic footing. Essential to this, is getting away from grandiose macro statements and getting down to the day-to-day blocking-and-tackling that drives business to provide its shareholder returns.

Speeches and one-off, non-core programs rarely lead to results. An opportunity this size demands vision, quality and measurement in order to be realized. A skilled helmswoman wins a race by following a plotted course, reacting to the changing conditions and leveraging the skills of her talented crew. A first mover in the business/disability space will do just that.