SUMMARY


The present paper shows an analysis on the current situation of the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the state of Guanajuato, Mexico. It intends to create a model from the results of this documentary and in situ research, about the policies and actions SMEs follow in the areas of Marketing and the Total Quality Philosophy. Our aim is to evaluate the most frequent problems that SMEs from the state of Guanajuato confront, which limit and hinder the client’s satisfaction together with their own development. The subject of this paper came out from my personal interest as a member of the “Facultad de Ciencias Administrativas de la Universidad de Guanajuato”; it seemed interesting to do a detailed research about quality, analyzing for this purpose the marketing policies in the SMEs of Guanajuato.

According to the statistics, the state of Guanajuato counts on 2240 SMEs. Some of these enterprises are supported by a quality guarantee program that includes the ISO 9000 norm, and the GTO 2000 norm. This is the fact that motivated me to start a documentary and in situ research that would allow me to ascertain the factors that determine when getting a quality certification, always under the wing of marketing management.

This paper is made up of 4 parts:

* The first part describes the methodology followed during the research.
* The second part describes general aspects on the topic as well as a brief history of the SMEs, including its perspective at a national and international level, together with its current situation in the state of Guanajuato. The concepts of Quality Management are reviewed: its definition, history, mottos, philosophy, models and principles. Some cases of certified enterprises are described, and we review the concepts of Marketing making emphasis in its importance and role in the Total Quality Philosophy.
* The third part lists the results of a survey applied to 363 of the SMEs of the region.
* The fourth part refers to the proposal Modelo Olimpia I, stemmed from the previous chapters and that describes its definition, characteristic, and what this model has to offer, as well as its limitations. This part also lists this model’s central concepts whose end is to serve as a working tool to guarantee the Total Quality of the SMEs

The investigation developed with this paper is merely of an exploring nature. What we intend with this investigation is to gather already existing information, but with the final purpose of making an in-depth analysis under the perspective of Marketing and Total Quality. 

To document this paper, we have used secondary sources of information such us personal interviews, visits and surveys made in SMEs from the state of Guanajuato. As primary sources of information we have used several research made by other universities and consultancies of international prestige, articles and academic publications of experts in Marketing, Quality and SMEs, publications from international magazines and articles in specialized press, as well as records from various congresses on quality in general.