One common bias found in the business world is “Discounting the Future.” This bias prevents people from seeing the value in future investments and causes them to chase after things that save money and provide immediate benefit, even at a future cost. We see this all the time. For example, companies often choose to focus on objectives that will increase quarterly results and please investors, even at the cost of better future business prospects. People do this all the time in their lives (I’m sure we have all procrastinated at some point).

This bias is what prevents companies from addressing quality control early, which may result in disaster for them later. A well-developed business plan will address quality control costs and account for them, because they are an investment into the future of the company. A major lawsuit or recall, which may have been prevented with good QC practice, can sink a company. On the other end, it is unlikely that a company will fail due to the costs of investing in QC engineers and a QC protocol.