The key to a successful Total Quality Management (TQM) program is not in understanding it - TQM is, after all, largely common sense - but in actually doing it. At ODI we've observed, in our work with almost 300 companies, that world-class implementations of TQM tend to have certain common elements, which we call the five pillars of successful quality processes. They are customer satisfaction, total involvement, measurement, systematic support, and continuous improvement.