Before settling for my new job, I spent the last few months seeing potential employers, being interviewed, but also trying my best to interview my potential employers in return to try to find out whether the job on offer really was going to be all it was cranked up to be. It's easy to be star-struck, particularly when going for interviews with companies one is passionate about, or admires for one reason or another, but in these cases it is even more important to ask some difficult questions too, in order to separate reality from one's dream of what the company is.
Often it can be disappointing, if not outright surprising, to discover that the success the company has enjoyed is more or less down to sheer luck, and throwing money at production with the rationale that something will be a hit eventually. Success by probability rather than strategy. I have been taken slightly aback by the realisation how many companies, despite all the literature, courses, best-practise case studies and whatever are out there - still can't get their head around how to do things right.
What is the right way? I'm inclined to think that despite the explosion of books on innovative business practises and leadership, the best and clearest findings are still free, courtesy of The International Standards Organisation (ISO) who works relentlessly to share best practises in a range of different fields, and publicising their findings freely and widely. In that respect we really don't have an excuse - this knowledge is out there so let's more use of it. The following text is an integral reproduction of the content of the document "Quality Management Principles":
Principle 1 Customer focus
Organisations depend on their customers and therefore should understand current and future customer needs, should meet customer requirements and strive to exceed customer expectations.
Key benefits:
- Increased revenue and market share obtained through flexible and fast responses to market opportunities.
- Increased effectiveness in the use of the organisation's resources to enhance customer satisfaction.
- Improved customer loyalty leading to repeat business.
Applying the principle of customer focus typically leads to:
- Researching and understanding customer needs and expectations.
- Ensuring that the objectives of the organisation are linked to customer needs and expectations.
- Communicating customer needs and expectations throughout the organisation. Measuring customer satisfaction and acting on the results.
- Systematically managing customer relationships.
- Ensuring a balanced approach between satisfying customers and other interested parties (such as owners, employees, suppliers, financiers, local communities and society as a whole).
Principle 2 Leadership
Leaders establish unity of purpose and direction of the organization. They should create and maintain the internal environment in which people can become fully involved in achieving the organization's objectives.
Key benefits:
- People will understand and be motivated towards the organisation's goals and objectives.
- Activities are evaluated, aligned and implemented in a unified way.
- Miscommunication between levels of an organisation will be minimised.
Applying the principle of leadership typically leads to:
- Considering the needs of all interested parties including customers, owners, employees, suppliers, financiers, local communities and society as a whole.
- Establishing a clear vision of the organisation's future.
- Setting challenging goals and targets.
- Creating and sustaining shared values, fairness and ethical role models at all levels of the organisation.
- Establishing trust and eliminating fear.
- Providing people with the required resources, training and freedom to act with responsibility and accountability.
- Inspiring, encouraging and recognising people's contributions.
Principle 3 Involvement of people
People at all levels are the essence of an organization and their full involvement enables their abilities to be used for the organization's benefit.
Key benefits:
- Motivated, committed and involved people within the organisation.
- Innovation and creativity in furthering the organisation's objectives.
- People being accountable for their own performance.
- People eager to participate in and contribute to continual improvement.
Applying the principle of involvement of people typically leads to:
- People understanding the importance of their contribution and role in the organisation.
- People identifying constraints to their performance.
- People accepting ownership of problems and their responsibility for solving them. People evaluating their performance against their personal goals and objectives.
- People actively seeking opportunities to enhance their competence, knowledge and experience. * People freely sharing knowledge and experience.
- People openly discussing problems and issues.
Principle 4 Process approach
A desired result is achieved more efficiently when activities and related resources are managed as a process.
Key benefits:
- Lower costs and shorter cycle times through effective use of resources.
- Improved, consistent and predictable results.
- Focused and prioritised improvement opportunities.
Applying the principle of process approach typically leads to:
- Systematically defining the activities necessary to obtain a desired result.
- Establishing clear responsibility and accountability for managing key activities.
- Analysing and measuring of the capability of key activities.
- Identifying the interfaces of key activities within and between the functions of the organisation.
- Focusing on the factors such as resources, methods, and materials that will improve key activities of the organisation.
- Evaluating risks, consequences and impacts of activities on customers, suppliers and other interested parties.
Principle 5 System approach to management
Identifying, understanding and managing interrelated processes as a system contributes to the organization's effectiveness and efficiency in achieving its objectives.
Key benefits:
- Integration and alignment of the processes that will best achieve the desired results.
- Ability to focus effort on the key processes.
- Providing confidence to interested parties as to the consistency, effectiveness and efficiency of the organisation.
Applying the principle of system approach to management typically leads to:
- Structuring a system to achieve the organisation's objectives in the most effective and efficient way.
- Understanding the inter-dependencies between the processes of the system. Structured approaches that harmonise and integrate processes.
- Providing a better understanding of the roles and responsibilities necessary for achieving common objectives and thereby reducing cross-functional barriers. Understanding organisational capabilities and establishing resource constraints prior to action.
- Targeting and defining how specific activities within a system should operate. Continually improving the system through measurement and evaluation.
Principle 6 Continual improvement
Continual improvement of the organization's overall performance should be a permanent objective of the organization.
Key benefits:
- Performance advantage through improved organisational capabilities.
- Alignment of improvement activities at all levels to an organisation's strategic intent.
- Flexibility to react quickly to opportunities.
Applying the principle of continual improvement typically leads to:
- Employing a consistent organisation-wide approach to continual improvement of the organisation's performance.
- Providing people with training in the methods and tools of continual improvement. Making continual improvement of products, processes and systems an objective for every individual in the organisation.
- Establishing goals to guide, and measures to track, continual improvement. Recognising and acknowledging improvements.
Principle 7 Factual approach to decision making
Effective decisions are based on the analysis of data and information
Key benefits:
- Informed decisions.
- An increased ability to demonstrate the effectiveness of past decisions through reference to factual records.
- Increased ability to review, challenge and change opinions and decisions.
Applying the principle of factual approach to decision making typically leads to:
- Ensuring that data and information are sufficiently accurate and reliable.
- Making data accessible to those who need it.
- Analysing data and information using valid methods.
- Making decisions and taking action based on factual analysis, balanced with experience and intuition.
Principle 8 Mutually beneficial supplier relationships
An organization and its suppliers are interdependent and a mutually beneficial relationship enhances the ability of both to create value
Key benefits:
- Increased ability to create value for both parties.
- Flexibility and speed of joint responses to changing market or customer needs and expectations.
- Optimisation of costs and resources.
Applying the principles of mutually beneficial supplier relationships typically leads to:
- Establishing relationships that balance short-term gains with long-term considerations.
- Pooling of expertise and resources with partners.
- Identifying and selecting key suppliers.
- Clear and open communication.
- Sharing information and future plans.
- Establishing joint development and improvement activities.
- Inspiring, encouraging and recognising improvements and achievements by suppliers.
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