Total Quality Management (Case Study) - Essay Example

Slight Sports, a sports equipment and hosiery manufacturing firm that has been operational for the last 40 years is one of the top organizations in the area of sports. The firm which started its operations from a single room became one of the top exporter of the sports equipment and accessories of the country. The major products included were footballs, basketballs, volley balls, tennis balls, sports hosieries and all the related equipment to these sports. Initially, Slight Sports catered to the local market for almost five years.

The owner of the company, Mr. (XYZ) however, realized the potential of the foreign market and started looking for partners on foreign soils. With his untiring efforts, he found partners in different countries of the world and was able to create strong relationships with them. This was the start of the successful journey that Slight Sports enjoyed for almost thirty odd years. A major characteristic of Slight Sports products was that they were all handmade which ultimately increased the value of their products worldwide.

The visionary thinking and leadership characteristics of (XYZ) were instrumental in making Slight Sports earn its success. In the starting years of 2000, XYZ died due to heart disease. His death left a big hole in Slight Sports. The reins of the company were then transferred to his wife who started to look for new partners to modernize the firm in technological terms. The poor management skills and inexperience of Ms. XYZ proved extremely damaging for the firm. Kite Inc. who had been a major collaborator of Slight Sports in different countries ended their contract with Slight Sports sighting the declining quality of products and elimination of unique characteristics that were once forte of Slight Sports (Goldman, 100).

The poor order management also played its part in ending of the contract. This was one of the major contract endings in the list which contained few other contract endings as well. Just in a couple of years Slight Sports had to cut back from all the major foreign deals and limited their operations to the local market. It is imperative to note that leadership is a key aspect in deciding a firm’s success. The strategy, order management, client handling, etc, are important parts of any business, but there is no denying that they all come under the umbrella of leadership (Karni, 59).

A firm with strong leader and few resources can attain the unattainable but a firm with huge resources and a weak leader cannot even attain the attainable. Findings, Recommendations & Conclusion The new owner did not realize the actual potential of slight sports. Her inexperience decided the firm’s downfall. She looked for new customers not realizing the company was not in the position to fulfill orders exceeding its capacity. She also cut down the unique characteristic Slight Sports had of “handmade” products by installing new machines.

The installation of machines which should have been a good step proved damaging for them as it eliminated their point of major strength (Hitt, Ireland and Hoskisson, 75). The new owner needs to focus on constant quality management techniques such as implying six sigma concepts in the business after the business gets stable. This is important because for quality to remain consistent, it needs to be maintained on a constant note by strong supervision of policies and procedures. Six sigma concepts may take time to embed in the firm's policies but nevertheless it should be implied as soon as