of their products and services to become more competitive in the local and international marketplace, according to one local businesswoman.

Chairman of the Bermuda Quality Awareness Team (BQAT), Mrs. Patricia Daly said this week she had noticed that the "it's not my job'' attitude of the 1980s was beginning to disappear.

And she pointed out that two BQAT seminars on quality held last night were fully booked.

More than 100 representatives from the local business community, including the hotel and restaurant sectors, attended, Mrs. Daly said.

General manager of the A.F. Smith Trading Company, Mrs. Daly said she believed the recession had taught local businesses a lesson in the importance of quality.

They were realising quality was vital to a business' survival in the 1990s, she said.

Guest speaker at the seminars was Mr. Mario Sa Couto, vice-president of quality and customer satisfaction for the quality-award-winning Xerox Corporation. He made a presentation entitled "The Xerox Quest for Quality''.

Mr. Sa Couto, who arrived on the Island on Monday, said it was up to a country's Government to provide the incentive and focus for quality products and services.

And it was management's responsibility to foster a happy working environment and train staff to give better service.

The Portuguese businessman said management should first look outside to see what the competition was doing, then respond to the requests and needs of its employees if they were not happy or satisfied in their jobs.

One way of making employees happier and more willing to serve was giving them more responsibility, he said.

The Connecticut-based Xerox Corporation was founded in 1906 and employs 110,000 people. In 1989 it was the recipient of the highest award for quality in America, the Malcolm Baldridge Award.

BQAT was formed in November of 1991 with the goal of introducing quality concepts to the local workforce and promoting the benefits and successes of quality use.

The group wanted to "enhance the joy of living and working in Bermuda''. It also set out to monitor and measure the progress of quality use in Bermuda.

Mrs. Daly said when a survey was taken shortly after BQAT formed, only 15 to 20 percent of the 65 businesses interviewed knew what quality was.

The group is hoping to take another survey at the end of the year.

MR. MARIO SA COUTO -- addressed last night's seminar on the Xerox "Quest for Quality''.