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QUALITY + PRODUCTIVITY = PROSPERITY 
The policy of Socially Responsible Free Enterprise begins with free enterprise. It identifies areas in which unregulated or insufficiently regulated economic activity can be detrimental to other participants, then acts to limit or eliminate such practices.
A significant element in the concept of Fair Exchange is Quality and Productivity. The value of a product or service lies not only in the labour and materials it contains, but also in the quality and efficiency of its design, manufacture or presentation.
Is less-than-maximum quality, efficiency and productivity in business and industry detrimental to other participants, to suppliers, co-workers, investors, community and consumers? A case can be clearly be made in the affirmative.
The consumer is the ultimate recipient of the product or service; indeed, since we produce solely in order to consume, the consumer must be the most important element in the process. Good design, economical production, efficient and stable administration; all these factors have a direct bearing on the product or service as it is presented to the consumer.
And it is the consumer who suffers when a product fails to perform as it should, when its quality and service fall below the standard of which current technology is capable, or when it is over-priced as a result of wasteful production methods.
When products are poorly designed and inefficiently or wastefully manufactured, when services are careless and slipshod, when quality is poor, the consumer suffers.
But so also do the investors if the firm concerned fails to gain its potential market share. And employees suffer both from inefficient working conditions, and from the insecurity and potential job losses inevitably incurred in a poorly run company. The maintenance of high standards in any business is clearly in the interests of all its co-workers and investors, as well as the host community that depends on it for employment and prosperity.
In the wider context, businesses and industries are highly dependent on one another, for the supply of materials and components, for subcontracted work, for marketing and distribution. So the quality and reliability of one business affects, and is affected by that of several others.
This total integration and inter-dependence of co-workers at all levels and in all departments, together with investors, suppliers, distributors, host community and consumers, clearly reflects the reality that avoidable incompetence in any part of the chain affects others adversely if not disastrously.
Suppliers and distributors, as well as co-workers at all levels and in all departments should have the right to expect from one another the highest standards of professional conduct.
And consumers should have the right to expect that products and services reflect and embody the highest currently available techniques and capabilities in efficiency, quality and reliability.
A policy of Socially Responsible Free Enterprise recognizes this interdependence, and the obligation which it places on all participants in economic activity to strive continuously for quality and productivity maximization.
Quality and productive efficiency can never be absolute targets, for standards are always being improved. But maximization of quality and productive efficiency within currently available knowledge and techniques must become the norm if the overall objective of fair exchange and socially responsible production is to be achieved.
Socially Responsible Free Enterprise would obligate every business to designate an individual or a department with the duty to be conversant at all times with the latest Standards and techniques of design, production and management relevant to its particular field, and would further require that such Standards and practices should be applied at the earliest practicable opportunity. In case of persistent non-compliance, investors, consumers and co-workers at all levels should have ultimate recourse to law.
A start can be made by introducing universal compliance with International Quality Standard Specifications which provide official certification and monitoring of individual company or industry-group Quality Assurance Programs. Maintaining the highest possible standards in management, quality and productivity will maximize job satisfaction and job security for suppliers and co-workers, while consumers will enjoy the use of products and services which reflect a continuous improvement in quality at progressively falling prices. And as a nation becomes more efficient and more productive, so its standard of living increases, and so also its international competitiveness is enhanced.
Investment provided by Regional Development Banks should also be conditional on continuous maintenance of the highest possible production and quality standards.
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