Over the last two years, a company has invested significant time, money, and effort in establishing and deploying a quality management system. Teams were formed and trained to work on various problem areas, and several solutions were proposed and implemented. However, subsequent market surveys showed no improvement in the company ' s market share. A consultant who was hired to evaluate the program issued the following summary:

The goals that were set were too narrow in focus and had 12- to 18-month deadlines instead of 3- to 5-year completion dates.

The company ' s suppliers were left out of the planning process.

The process improvements that were made had no impact beyond their own functional areas and were not linked to the company ' s strategic goals.

The quality department was solely responsible for meeting all quality goals and answering all product-related customer complaints.

Which of these issues is the most likely cause of failure for this company ' s quality management system?