Quality and or but ...

I am in Beijing having flown here on Qatar Airways via Doha. The airline claims to be a '5 star airline' and service was undeniably excellent. How was productivity? Almost impossible to tell but in 'conventional' terms, I suspect it was quite low. Quality and productivity can go hand in hand but when organisations are seeking to appeal to a 'luxury' market, the level of service needs to be exceptionally high. There is, of course, a different view. I have argued in the past that the 'top line' of the productivity ratio (where the value is added) should be measured in customer perceived benefit - and assuming customers are willing to pay for the level of service offered, then productivity can still be high.

I suspect from the pricing of Qatar flights, that there is an exercise in national promotion going on and that the costs of delivering the quality of service offered are not necessarily recovered from the pricing strategy. If this is the case, quality is high but productivity is low,

... but I enjoyed the flight! And I suspect that the 'strategy' is working in terms of making flyers recognise the excellence of Qatar airlines and think differently about the state.