Xerox (HK), as winner of the first Quality Award in 1991, regarded the occasion as not only an honour but a necessary achievement.
It considered itself part of a corporation known not only for its copiers but as a pioneer of Total Quality Management.
The self-style 'Document Company' has seen its divisions earn the world's most prestigious quality awards.
These include the three most widely recognised - the European Quality Award, the Deming Prize, and the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award.
According to Allan Lin, managing director of Xerox (HK), it was 'no accident' that along with the awards Xerox had garnered in other countries, it should set a precedent in Hong Kong by being the unanimous winner of the first competition.
Xerox played a seminal role in the field of Total Quality Management (TQM) by bringing the methodology of Japanese companies, which had introduced it to the workplace in the 1950s, to the global business community. Beginning in the 1970s with an unforeseen loss of profits to Japanese competitors, Xerox was the first US corporation to regain market share a decade later by using strategies that resembled rivals' models.
Emphasising greater customer feedback, reduced costs, greater employee involvement and competitive benchmarking the 'Leadership Through Quality' programme had become the prototype for other corporation's TQM programmes, Mr Lin said.
