Our "Guru of the Month," Harvard professor, David Garvin, is known for his development of quality as a strategy. He developed the "Eight Dimensions of Quality" which provides multiple interpretations of quality, which a variety of managers, operators and customers have become accustomed to.

In the early 80’s, Garvin stated that "if quality is to be managed, it must be first understood." He broke the concept of quality into eight (8) dimensions including performance, features, reliability, conformance, durability, serviceability, aesthetics, and perceived quality.

Garvin also determined four (4) steps in positioning yourself strategically in quality. 1) Define quality in the eyes of your customers. Organizations must pinpoint what customers’ mean when they say "quality." 2) The organization must determine how they measure compared to what the customers want. 3) The organization must set internal goals and map out the relationship between the desired ends and internal practices. You must map out the current system and compare it with a hypothetical situation and determine the variances. 4) Form action teams to accomplish the quality goals.

Garvin is the author or co-author of nine (9) books including General Management: Processes and Action, Learning in Action, and Education for Judgment. He is also the author of more than twenty-five (25) articles, including "What You Don’t Know About Making Decisions."