Active Customer Engagement: Understanding product/service performance through customers' eyes and developing visible metrics on performance against customer needs. For world class companies surveyed, 82 percent of the respondents confirmed that customers were the key drivers of their quality programs. More than 63 percent of Indian organisations surveyed say they ‘highly agree' that customers are the key drivers of their quality programs.

Effective use of data: Using quality measures to establish strategic goals that drive performance, measuring business processes and the cost of remediation, and supporting trending and/or predictive analysis. More than 82 percent of world-class organisations measure the financial impact of quality; however, 37 percent of Indian organisations surveyed don't know the financial impact of quality on their company's profitability. The importance of connecting a firm's quality practices with its financial performance cannot be over-emphasized. Performance metrics which are measured correctly and consistently provide a robust basis for managerial decision-making and actions.

Controlled Setbacks: Identifying and managing setbacks that result in inefficiency, customer dissatisfaction and increased costs. While all organisations experience some quality-related setbacks, world-class organisations experience half the rate of setbacks as non-world-class organisations. More than 35 percent of organisations indicated that their setbacks resulted in service delays, overall inaccuracies, poor data quality and supplier-related issues.

Waste reduction: Improving efficiency, ensuring standardisation and reducing wasted time and mistakes to build quality and achieve internal customer satisfaction.

Innovation: Creating open and collaborative environments with a focus on idea-sharing and spurring innovation through the use of quality tools. 72 percent of Indian organisations surveyed use a combination of financial and non-financial incentives to encourage innovation.

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