A Question of Quality

The question of quality in a business has been discussed endlessly.  In 1970, when I started working on our first production, I had a clear image of what this company would be all about – quality was important. I had learned this from my boss in the late 1960’s.  I saw the difference between two companies that I worked with.  The first one was preoccupied with cost, cost, cost.  Do it cheap and dirty.  Get it done.  The second company was interested in quality. Get it right – do the best you can. It was an important lesson to learn.  Here’s how it all happened! With the decision made to go in the Social Studies curriculum, a study of the subject indicated a need for a more thorough understanding of the people of the world.  The appeal would involve a different approach.  The new emphasis would be on a study of the people – not a traditional review of products and geography. The first step to establish quality was to find a competent scriptwriter.  Following more research, a college professor was identified.  She was a world-class professor of anthropology.  After a number of meetings where the groundwork was agreed upon, she accepted the assignment.  Right from that agreement, quality was paramount. It was decided to begin with the Japanese people.  In 1967, Japan represented a mixed image in America; an enemy in World War II and a rising economic power.  There was a need to know more. Anthropology then divided societal studies into nine categories – including family, religion, work, the arts, warfare, and history, among others. The nine scripts were finally written, rewritten several times and eventually the storyboards were completed.  With these nine story boards, I studied every possible location for shooting pictures in the U.S. None of them were totally satisfactory.  The only answer was to go to Japan and shoot the scripts on location.  We wanted authentic photographs.  Quality, quality, quality. Since this was a new direction, I requested to do this project myself.  The president of the company agreed.  He said that he would deal with the freelance producers while I was away. My wife and I flew in to Tokyo and spent an extraordinary six weeks.  We traveled all over Japan.  She carried the film and I took over 4000 photos with all the back-up exposures.  I took my last photograph on the next to the last day in Japan.  I shipped the outtakes back to New York.  And I kept the 990 storyline photos next to me 24/7. The extraordinary scripts opened topics and issues and revealed a view of the Japanese that few people knew anything about.  For example:

Item 1:    The original settlers of Japan were thought to be settlers from northern Asia, probably Siberia, who migrated to Japan unknown years ago and first settled the land. Descendents of these original people survive to this day.  They live on the northern island, Hokkaido, they are white people and live on reservations.  They are called Ainu. Item 2:    The significance of the Japanese greeting – the bow, reveals a great deal of the Japanese important standards of behavior.  The degree of the bow ranges from a mere head nod to literally falling to the floor and putting the forehead flat on the floor.

The nod is a casual greeting to a friend.  The deeper the bow shows an increasing degree of respect. These are only two examples out of three hours of content.  The finished production became an immediate top seller. It confirmed to me that the time spent on achieving quality was well worth it. Quality: Insisting that everyone, here at Bergwall, incorporates Quality into everything we do, is the main reason we are still in business.  In fact, this year we are celebrating Bergwall’s 40th year of being in business. This has been a long way of saying that quality is still important to us.  But you be the judge.