A quest for quality & excellence in development
Preamble
Commonly, IQ is accepted as the acronym for Intelligent Quotient, referring to a person’s ability to score high or low marks in a set of standardized intelligence tests. It is hoped that a person with a high IQ score is more intelligent than those with low IQ scores. As has been observed often, an IQ score does not reflect or measure things like life experience, wisdom, or personal qualities like being a good friend or a caring mother. In other words, it is not a predictor of a person’s quality or worth, though it has occasionally been used as such.
Similarly, EQ stands for Emotional Intelligence Quotient. Much like an IQ, an EQ is said to be not only a measure of a person’s emotional intelligence, but it also, purportedly, a representative of a person’s social behavior, social skills and her/his ability to construct and/or destruct relationships.
Our hitherto forays The Development Sector have nudged us towards extrapolating the above two concepts to arrive at a sector-appropriate concept of DevQ. It stands for Development Quotient. Technically, it can refer to a community’s, a society’s, a state’s, a nation’s ability to score high or low scores against a set of standardized indicators of Development or even their skills or ability to make their respective members happy, prosperous and enhance their life qualities.
But what both IQ and EQ fail to do to a large extent – representing the real world that is – DevQ does not succeed either. History suggests that “quotienting” Development thus, can explain the larger version of the phenomenon only partially. In other words, defining any quotient to its last hilt becomes just a never ending quest. Accepting DevQ as the acronym for Development Quest will be more realistic, therefore.
The Quest for Development
It is a well known fact, both documented and experienced, that India’s journey in Development in the last six decades has been marked more by well intentioned and comprehensively thought policies, initiatives and programs going off the course. More often than not, they have eventually not achieved the goals and the objectives they had aimed. A very large body of literature has exclusively examined the pros and cons of this phenomenon and has recommended a multitude of suggestions and solutions. These have remained just that: suggestions and solutions on paper. Seldom have they come out of print to act and operate.
The reality, however, suggests that development practitioners have not paid a serious heed to this, for beset we are with development projects that, in terms of results and impacts, have not often rose above average levels. In other words, a large number of development initiatives and programs across the country continue to leave much to be desired.
As an organization, our position on this largely avoidable reality is that there is no dearth of intent; nor is there any dearth of resource when it comes to planning, managing and executing development projects and initiatives. What we seriously lack is quality and excellence at each and every stage of the exercise. In fact, it has almost become a mindset among all concerned to accept work and results that are devoid of quality and excellence. In this sense, the quest for development remains eternal. The search goes on.
At a broader level, therefore, our position merits a mandate that not only requires this quest to begin in a right earnest but also offer – to its potential clientele – services and deliverables where quality and excellence exist, by default.
We are DevQ
We, Development Quest Foundation, are an Ahmedabad (Gujarat, INDIA) based consulting organization, registered with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Government of India, as a company (limited by shares and not-for-profit) under section 25 of the companies act, 1956. Presently, our team is quite small but we are in the process of enhancing it size.
Vision
Our Vision and Mission have a distinct fervor. They are stated below, respectively.
Our vision is: “Strive for a world where quality and excellence in development initiatives are achieved by design and not by accident.”
Mission
Our mission is as follows:
“Infuse quality and excellence in any development initiative through applying rational thought processes; conducting scientific inquiries; adopting an eclectic approach and holding participatory, consultative interactions with all concerned.”
The Logo
Our logo conveys our quest for (excellence and quality in) Development. What one sees are four leaves but there is only one leaf in four different forms. The quest (for excellence and quality) begins with the leaf pointing to the West. It is filled with a solid grey color, indicating that any development phenomenon such as society, human resources, development projects etc. is very complex and closed. But as our quest moves on (denoted by both North and East pointing leaves) this complexity is gradually unraveled. The process is complete as one reaches the South pointing leaf where the complexity stands totally unraveled and understood. This has been possible only through the excellent and quality processes, tools, techniques and analysis used.