Elements of The Business

Business elements include structural and infrastructural elements. Structural elements are tangible resources, such as buildings, equipment, and computer systems. These resources typically require large capital investments that are difficult to reverse. Because of their cost and inflexibility, such elements arc changed infrequently and only after much deliberation. In contrast, infrastructural elements are the people, policies, decision rules, and organizational structure choices made by the firm. These elements are, by definition, not as visible as structural elements, but are just as important. Total quality management (TQM) is a managerial approach in which the entire organization is managed so that it excels in all quality dimensions that are important to customers. Organizations that adopt TQM as one of their infrastructural elements will probably make structural and infrastructural decisions that are very different from those of firms that don’t follow such an approach.