Lamenting quality

Let me start off by saying I have never really been fond of the word quality. I rarely let clients use it to describe any aspect of their business without defining it further because it is too easy to say and too vague to work with. I treat the words value, trust and integrity with the same contempt.

By Nick Hall

Having said that, I do find myself wondering where the desire to produce quality has gone. If it can be made cheaper, smaller or faster while using more plastic, less real chocolate and no design sense, it almost certainly will be. Maybe no one will notice, eh?

Well I notice. I noticed when my beloved Cadburys’ Easter Creme Eggs became nothing more than over-packaged pellets of sugary shit. I noticed that you left a word out of that headline. I noticed you don’t last as long, work as well and that your price went up even as you got smaller. That you didn’t say hello, thanks or nice to see you again. In other words, I noticed you stopped caring about what I think. Maybe you thought I was too busy to notice. Apparently I’m not. Nor am I alone.

I worry this downward spiral in quality will have an even more profound effect on our culture in the long term, because eventually we’ll stop expecting it altogether. And when we stop expecting it, we’ll forget that it has value, and when it becomes valueless, we’ll stop teaching it. And then it’s gone for good.

What does that world look like?