For far too many organizations, it’s never been harder to stay ahead, to achieve and sustain results, and to balance short- and long-term success. Organizational survival means doing more with less, standing out from competitors and unlocking value—all to win the global contest for customers, talent and resources.

Strategies and tools like Six Sigma and lean have helped management squeeze just about every drop of value from their organizations, but customers, senior executives, and a host of other stakeholders expect more. Given this environment, there’s a real need to put the spotlight back on quality—i.e., improvement tools, techniques, systems, and priorities—and find new ways to drive performance and achieve business results.

Last year, ASQ embarked on a global study to create a baseline of fundamental quality, understand continuous improvement practices around the world, and provide a comparative guide for businesses to improve overall organizational performance. This first release of the research, Discoveries 2013, uncovered some surprising findings.

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