Total Quality Management

1) According to Wikipedia, the first Carrefour store opened on June 3, 1957, in suburban Annecy near a crossroads (carrefour in French). The group was created by Marcel Fournier, Denis Defforey and Jacques Defforey and grew into a chain from this first sales outlet. In 1999 it merged with Promodès, known as Continent, one of its major competitors in the French market. Marcel Fournier, Denis Defforey and Jacques Defforey had attended several seminars in the United States led by "The Pope of modern distribution" Bernardo Trujillo, who influenced other famous French executives like Édouard Leclerc (E.Leclerc), Gérard Mulliez (Auchan), Paul Dubrule (Accor), and Gérard Pélisson (Accor). Their slogan was "No parking, no business." The Carrefour group pioneered the concept of a hypermarket, a large supermarket and a department store under the same roof. They opened their first hypermarket June 15, 1963 in Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois, near Paris in France. In April 1976, Carrefour launched a private label Produits libres (free products - libre meaning free in the sense of liberty as opposed to gratis) line of fifty foodstuffs, including oil, biscuits (crackers and cookies), milk, and pasta, sold in unbranded white packages at substantially lower prices.

2) Total Quality Management (TQM) is a set of management practices throughout the organization, geared to ensure the organization consistently meets or exceeds customer requirements. TQM places strong focus on process measurement and controls as means of continuous improvement. TQM is also a management philosophy and strategy designed to involve all members of an organization in the process and responsibility for producing quality products and services. These can be summed up as follows:

* The customer defines quality and this is the start point

* The senior management team is responsible for taking the lead in setting the company strategy, values and culture with regard to quality

* Quality depends upon...