Rene T. Domingo has spent decades helping companies improve quality and operations—but he’s not impressed by perfection for perfection’s sake.
“Businesses can suffer from what I call quality myopia,” says Domingo, an adjunct professor at the Asian Institute of Management. “They may just be improving, perfecting, and documenting an error—a product that is unsalable, non-manufacturable, unprofitable, or uncompetitive.”
In other words? You could be doing everything right inside your company—and still lose.
What is ‘quality myopia’—and why is it dangerous?
Domingo defines quality myopia as the blind pursuit of internal standards without thinking about what really matters to customers. It’s when companies obsess over conformance, process perfection, or defect reduction—but ignore changing market trends or customer expectations.
“Fragmented and functional approaches to quality and quality improvement will provide little strategic advantage,” he says in an exclusive interview with Financial Adviser PH. And that lack of strategy can be costly.
When perfect products fail
If you want real-world proof that internal quality metrics don’t always lead to success, just look at what happened to two industry giants.
“Motorola tried to reduce the defect rates of its products such as cellphones, while Nokia kept coming out with better and better cellphones,” Domingo says. “Both eventually lost market leadership to the more customer-centric Apple and Samsung.”
Even though Motorola and Nokia were laser-focused on performance and product quality, they missed what customers really wanted: a game-changing experience. In contrast, Apple and Samsung prioritized customer-centric innovation—and took over the market.
The takeaway? “Excellence in conformity quality and product quality may no longer be enough to ensure growth and maintain industry leadership,” Domingo says.
The fix: Make quality a strategic weapon
To avoid quality myopia, Domingo says businesses need to shift their mindset. It’s not just about eliminating defects—it’s about aligning quality with what the customer values most.
“Quality is about customer retention, customer loyalty, and building strong client relationships,” he explains. “Not just being responsive, compliant, and defect-free.”
That means your quality program needs to be tied to your marketing, operations, and financial strategy. Domingo says companies must ask:
Does this improvement add value customers care about?
Will it lower costs or enhance the customer experience?
Is it helping us stay competitive?
If not, you may be wasting time and resources chasing internal perfection while your competitors win over your customers.
Final word: Quality alone won’t save you
“The days of ‘build it well and they will come’ are over,” Domingo warns. “Instead, buyers will say, ‘build it well, and this is my price—or your competitor’s price to match and beat.’”
In today’s market, great quality is just the starting point. If you want to thrive, you’ll need more than just a defect-free product—you need to stay relevant.
