It is one of the most dramatic but predictable conflicts in today’s companies and enterprises, regardless of whether those companies are product manufacturers/distributors OR service providers.
Some scholars go further and call it “Mutual Dislike”, which normally takes place when teams’ objectives collide in different forms. It could also get worse, especially when companies undergo recessions or periods of slums.
But why do Sales and Quality departments defy each other during those hard times? Which one of them do general managers normally advocate? These questions could have variable answers, but unfortunately ALL will try to justify the quality compromise for the sake of revenue, because the company’s wellbeing is at stake.
Amazingly enough however, in tangible products this could be easier, companies could simply lessen the amount or minimize its size and of course remarket it under newer rubric. But what if the company provides services such as: telecommunications, medical, or training services? Here the clash gets rougher and more aggressive, and sales departments try to take advantage of Quality. And the result is: cheap, unsatisfactory, naïve and laughable services that sooner or later wheel the company backward to its inevitable destination: The Abyss.
Does this make Quality the absolute salvation and deliverance that guarantees and engenders the company’s survival? What if the quality of the service is standard but the revenues aren’t promising and cannot even cover the company’s basic needs? Isn’t it a justifiable quality compromise and better settlement?
Broad-minded business leaders with discernment and wise foresight would never allow such deviations and vision aberration to take place. They would simply turn it to the marketing or business development sections to shoulder the liability and come up with business notions and inventive ideas to extricate the business from an incontestable breakdown, without jeopardizing the service quality or risking its subsistence. Many managers think that they are that leader. Yet, their actions tell otherwise.
