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Nonetheless, the programme did have its merits and it highlighted the fact that, generally speaking, anyone can set up a business without having to be qualified or to show appropriate business or trade experience and offer their services to the general public. The message was: thoroughly check out the people you hope to do business with, before you give them any work. Look for their qualifications and take up references. In 1997/8 the Department of Trade and Industry fostered a working party to look into the problem of "Cowboy Builders". The result was that after a lot of hard work a Government sponsored scheme came into being. It is known as the Quality Mark Scheme This scheme was piloted in 2000 and fully launched by year 2002. Clearly there is not a lack of commitment from the authorities but there does seem to be a lack of commitment from the general public to avoid being taken advantage of. Sometimes even with the right commitment to 'look after oneself' mistakes can happen, (As I learned to my cost last year. My particular problem was caused by my poor judgement of a tradesman whereas I should have followed better quality practice regarding 'vendor assessment). This is a sad admission to make and if an experienced quality professional can slip up then it is understandable that less well aware members of the public can easily be taken for a ride. Nonetheless, regardless of running, public awareness campaigns and the marketing by 'approved companies' there seems to be a general reluctance by the public to take responsibility for themselves. When I entered the quality profession 35 years ago there was a lot of talk and emphasis of the fundamental principle in contract law of "Caveat Emptor" i.e. "Let the buyer beware". This has been mirrored for hundreds of years by the adage of "Look before you leap". However what has developed, especially during the last three decades or so is the concept of 'the nanny state' where we have become accustomed to not taking responsibility for our own decisions and actions and to rely upon some higher authority to look after our interests for us. Such an attitude is lazy and naive and encourages the unscrupulous as well as the ignorant to take one for a ride. The title to this month's article is "Only if you mean it" and you may be wondering what its relevance is to what you have just read. Well, if you say you provide a quality service it will happen only if you mean it. It won't happen because of the existence of TSO's, the Law, Government initiatives or even ISO 9001. Quality will happen only if that is what you really want to happen. |
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