Whenever Financial Analysts look at any business, the first indicator of the business is taken as Return on Investment. This parameter is a monetary multiple of the inputs, higher the RoI, more profitable the business would be. This understanding is applicable to  businesses in maturity stage as most of the costs have already been apportioned or written off, and the recurring costs are more of maintenance costs in nature.

For example, an organization that is running for twenty years would have most of the Fixed costs – in terms of Land and Assets, already apportioned and most of the costs would feature in terms of Raw Material Costs, Manpower cost, Rents and Maintenance costs.
 
For a business in a start up phase, the RoI calculation is however misleading. Whenever a new venture is floated from scratch, even the first chair, table etc. have to be bought – more so in terms of investments. During this phase however, many organizations and many managers have harped on the concept of Quality. What is Quality? No single definition can define this term, however, the closest that I can think of is – the degree of satisfaction that a customer gets from a product – vis a vis the one expected by the customer.
 
Most of the organizations have emphasized on the need of Quality right from the word GO. Good quality raw material, high quality Human Capital, Quality oriented processes….would surely deliver Good Quality Product. TQM – an art mastered by Japanaese long time back --- Does any of us question the RoI of Japanese organizations like Honda, Toyota etc. ? No, because these organizations stand for quality. Period.
 
Then where is the doubt for RoI v/s Quality – I think it’s a difference between the outlook --- Quality --- for customer and RoI for Investor…..and for the long term sustenance of any organization --- both these elements have to go hand in hand.
 
If I have to make a decision , I would favour quality because – A good quality product would have happy customers….and hence would excite very many investors….and improve the RoI.