Quality is fitness for purpose; it has nothing whatever to do with status, or grade, or
class. Yet this wrong interpretation of the word is an endlessly recurring source of trouble,
it causes so many misunderstandings. ‘We cannot afford the luxury of quality’, decrees the
boss of a small outfit making modest earthenware drinking mugs. ‘We are not at the
Wedgwood or china porcelain end of the business.’ No, but whoever buys the mugs expects
them to hold the tea without leaking, expects them to fulfil their intended purpose –
expects, in a word, quality.