Quality is non-negotiable, says EdgeVerve's Rama Mohan

Focus on efficiency, effectiveness, innovation and agility are important pillars for sustainable growth of any organisation, said K V Rama Mohan, Vice President and Head, Business Excellence, EdgeVerve Systems (an Infosys company).

Sharing his point of view on ‘Leadership Perspective: Case for Quality, Driver of Long-term Value Creation and Sustainable Growth’ at the 23rd National Quality Summit 2015 organised by CII, he said, “Faster and localised products and services, rapid technology adoption, and recognising and rewarding right behavior are key to transforming organisations towards sustainable future.”

“A fine balance between managing today’s business and building tomorrow’s organisations by nurturing internal capabilities and leveraging external abilities is a key to its long-term value creation and sustainable growth” he said.

Quality is non-negotiable in this regard and there is a need to see quality more from a perspective of strategic advantage achieved through design focus than compliance and assurance. “Quality needs to be seen as much more than a set of processes and initiatives. The fundamentals of quality need to be embraced and should not be compromised,” said Mohan.

He said processes need to see a fundamental shift in the way they are designed so that they are not seen as a burden. “Adopt kindergarten approach to process design that it becomes fun to follow. Gamify it, don’t regiment it, for better assimilation and adopt global standards for enhancing capability first and brand next,” he said.

User is taking the centrestage and customisation is the name of the game now for long-term value creation, said Ram: “Innovation and ongoing improvements should be with user at the centre….Normalisation and averages do not work.”

Mohan said to make innovation happen in organisations, there is a need to qualify people. Governance is a very important aspect for building sustainable organisations. “Focus of governance should be to drive the purpose, performance, predictability, and excellence,” said Ram.

Real-time data, analysis, and insights are key to drive execution-obsession, he said reminding about the importance of measurement.

He said basic tenets for any organisation is the triad of People, Process, and Technology. “Besides much desired culture and capability, people and processes help in achieving reliability and scalability, and speed and agility.”