Background William Edwards Deming created a list of fourteen points which are the foundation of his management theory. The first of the fourteen points deals with the concept of quality of a product or service and the need for its continuous improvement. The professor argues that to stay competitive, a company has to put full effort into improving the quality of the product or service. It is implied that the improvement is required as long as the company wishes to stay in business and remain competitive. As such, the product or service is always to be recognized as imperfect and having some room for improvement. The continuous effort towards enhancing the quality of the product or service will allow the company to stay ahead of the competition and therefore, stay in business as long as the improvement is made. The goal of the company, according to Dr. Deming, is to create a competitive product or service, remain competitive through the constant improvement of the product or service, and provide jobs. A special accent on the goal of providing jobs means that the companies should value their employees, who are at the core of constant improvement. Current Condition Costco Wholesale Corporation is an American retail company that operates through a membership warehouse concept. The company’s warehouses are open only to members and their guests and sell a limited selection of items. Dr. Deming’s point has already been partially adopted by the company’s management. The company’s focus has been on driving sales by continually providing its membership base with quality products and services at low prices. The word “continually” is used in the company’s mission statement and implies that the company’s management realizes the importance of continuous improvement. Costco Wholesale also recognizes the role of the employees in providing great customer service. Currently, the company motivates its employees with competitive wages and better benefits than those offered by other retail companies such as Walmart. Despite that, customer reviews online suggest that the quality of customer service at Costco Wholesale remains very low, and many areas need improvement. Many customers complain about shipment delays, rude customer service representatives, strict credit card policies, tax scams, credit card bills with no statements, faulty products, etc. Target Condition While Costco has focused on driving sales, evidently the quality of customer service suffered. Fully implementing Dr. Deming’s point would require Costco Wholesale to focus on creating competitive customer service. Once competitive, the company would have to establish quality objectives to improve the quality of customer service, stay competitive, and create jobs. Fully adopting the point would allow the company to increase its customer satisfaction and decrease administrative costs. Customer satisfaction would likely increase if their problems were addressed by competent customer representatives on time. Higher customer satisfaction means that fewer customers would discontinue their membership. At the same time, the membership base would likely increase due to the positive word-of-the-mouth. Increased membership base would result in