An article by Tom Becker, Associate Director of Arthur D Little, about quality management and the value this can create for customers and businesses. He discusses how product and service quality has become increasingly important and how products need to be more than just ‘defect-free’. Quality management should seek to move from simply being an ‘assurance’ stage to also incorporating it into all parts of the business through ‘empowerment’ and finally should aim to increase ‘customer delight’ thereby exceeding customer expectations. Becker stresses that quality management should become a key partner in the value chain to being more of a solution provider, as opposed to being the source of hurdles to be overcome. There are opportunities for quality management to become part of capturing and interpreting customer intelligence and evolving into a more holistic, strategic and value-adding aspect of businesses.