There is immense pride in seeing NGIVD’s products roll off the production line carrying the “Make in India” emblem. For NGIVD, however, the emblem represents far more than the country where a product is manufactured. It represents a commitment to ensuring that products made in India can stand confidently alongside the best in the world – serving both domestic and global customers.
It is relatively easy to build a cheaper product that meets only the minimum acceptable quality standards a “chalta hai” approach. But such an approach comes at a much higher cost. It risks not only damaging the brand but also undermining what “Make in India” should truly stand for: quality, reliability, innovation and global competitiveness.
From ‘Made in Germany’ to a Global Mark of Quality
The history of country-of-origin labelling offers an interesting perspective.
Towards the end of the 19th century, as newly industrializing Germany began expanding its products across European markets, more established economies such as Britain required German-made products to carry a ‘Made in Germany’ label. At the time, the label was intended, in part, as a warning associated with perceptions of inferior quality. Over time, Germany transformed that perception completely. Today, ‘Made in Germany’ is widely associated with engineering excellence, precision and quality.
Other Asian economies have followed similar journeys. Japan, South Korea and, more recently, China each faced periods of scepticism and discrimination before establishing themselves as formidable manufacturing economies. Their consistent focus on quality, innovation, productivity and competitive costs ultimately changed market perceptions. India now has an opportunity to make a similar transition.
Quality Begins with a Culture
Volumes can and have been written about quality systems, quality control and quality management. But one fundamental principle often gets overlooked: A quality product cannot be consistently produced without a culture of quality.
That culture begins within the workplace and eventually permeates the broader environment in which an organisation operates. There is an interesting lesson from everyday life. In the 1990s, while serving as a young government officer, the question was once raised: ‘Why are our trains dirty?’ A seasoned officer offered a simple observation: A country cannot have two social systems.
If the streets and public spaces around us are poorly maintained, it should not be surprising when the same behaviours appear inside public infrastructure. Interestingly, trains in India were cleaned far more frequently than trains in several countries that were admired for their cleanliness. The issue, therefore, was not simply the frequency of cleaning – it was the culture surrounding cleanliness.
The same principle applies to quality. A company cannot manufacture world-class products consistently if quality is treated merely as the responsibility of the Quality Control department. Quality has to become the way the organisation works.
Five Steps Towards Building a Quality Culture
At NGIVD, the journey towards building this culture can begin with five practical actions.
1. Invest in Quality – and Listen to Quality Teams
A strong Quality Control team needs investment not only in numbers but also in capability, competence and authority. Most importantly, the organisation must listen to the QC team. There can be no shortcuts simply because a rejection is expensive or a production delay is inconvenient. Rejecting a product that does not meet the required standard may hurt in the short term, but allowing a poor-quality product to reach a customer can hurt the organisation far more.
Quality cannot be compromised for convenience.
2. Make Quality Visible in Everything We Do
Quality should not begin and end with the finished product. It should be visible across every process and every detail.
- Correct product labelling.
- Accurate documentation.
- Leak-free bottles and packaging.
- Consistent manufacturing processes.
- Clean workspaces.
- Error-free communication.
A typo on a label may appear insignificant, just as a minor packaging defect may appear harmless. But collectively, these details communicate something much bigger about the organisation. If we want customers to trust the product, every touchpoint must earn that trust.
3. Hire for Quality—Because the Weakest Link Matters
There is an old saying: “Don’t go to the grocer hungry.”
The lesson is simple: decisions made under immediate pressure often lead to poor choices. Hiring is no different. When there is an urgent vacancy, the temptation is to compromise on the quality of the hire simply to fill the position. But organisations are only as strong as their weakest links.
Quality hiring is therefore not an HR responsibility alone. It is a business-wide boundary condition. Every function—from manufacturing and quality to sales, supply chain and administration—needs people who bring the right capability, attitude and commitment to quality.
4. Go to Gemba
One of the most powerful principles of Lean Management is Gemba – going to the actual place where work happens. Leaders need to spend time where products are manufactured, processes are executed and customers are served. They need to observe what is actually happening, speak with the people doing the work, identify problems and help resolve them.
Relying entirely on polished updates in a boardroom can create a dangerous disconnect between what management thinks is happening and what is actually happening.
This is particularly important in an environment where a culture of quality is still evolving.
The closer leadership gets to the work, the closer the organisation gets to reality.
5. Build SOPs and Checklists – and Then Train People
Good intentions are not a quality system.
People need clear Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), checklists and defined processes that explain exactly how a task should be performed.
But documentation alone does not create quality.
An SOP can sit untouched on a shelf while the organisation continues doing things differently. Processes become effective only when people are trained, coached and shown what good actually looks like.
That requires leaders and managers to role-model the standards they expect from others.
Quality Is a Daily Habit
Culture is not created through posters, policies or a one-time quality campaign.
Culture is the way things are done every day.
Every bottle that leaves the production line, every label that is printed, every test kit that is packed, every process that is followed and every decision that is made contributes to the culture of the organisation.
For NGIVD, “Make in India” is therefore not simply a statement of origin. It is a statement of intent.
The ambition should be to build products that demonstrate that manufacturing in India can combine quality, innovation, reliability and competitiveness to meet the expectations of customers anywhere in the world.
There is still a long journey ahead for Make in India to become not just a matter of national pride, but a preferred choice for customers globally.
NGIVD can play only a small part in that journey—but by building a strong culture of quality within its own ecosystem, it can help demonstrate what Make in India can and should stand for.
Quality is not a department. It is a culture. And that culture starts with us.
