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Leading by Example through On-the-Ground Engagement
The main principles that have been driving my positions in Quality are the following ones:
Added value: In all we have to implement, we are looking for developments that add value for the business and the users to get the most buy-in and are usually best accepted. This should drive your priorities!
Pragmatism: complying with the requirements that become more stringent every day is always a challenge, but if you can define solutions involving people and provide those answers to the issues they are dealing with, you increase the chance that they will apply the change. And remember: the simpler it is, the fewer risks you will face of failing!
Trial & error: do not try to reach perfection before you start moving: it is ok to initiate new concepts and revise them regularly until you get where you want. The only sure thing is that you get nowhere if you do not try! Step by step, you can build the solution that fits your need… and the small steps in a change are often easier to achieve.
Walk the talk: it is impossible to design a system that lives on the floor if you do not know the floor. Quality cannot be led from an ivory tower. Do you want Quality to be part of the solution? Then go where the problem is, open your eyes and talk to the people!
Embedding Quality amid Evolving Standards and Cross-Functional Engagement
Understanding the customers’ perspectives, requirements and expectations in a flexible frame is the best way to keep pace with a changing world. An efficient legal follow-up and being active in professional associations are good ways to stay connected and anticipate evolution… And, of course, always stay open to change for the better!
Quality teams are usually not an army! We need to be everywhere and connect to all areas of the business. Therefore, we have used an essential tool from Quality Management to increase Quality awareness and raise “ambassadors” in other services: the Internal Audit team.
“Quality is no longer just about control and compliance. It is about creating value, connecting across departments and leading change with purpose. As expectations grow, quality leaders must become system thinkers, communicators and champions of continuous improvement across the entire supply chain.”
Using a group of motivated internal auditors, we have generated added value for the company by targeting issues the Management Team found hard to cope with. And to increase the motivation of auditors, we have initiated a yearly training. Sounds boring, isn’t it? But what if you turn that yearly training into a team building where the auditors can build their auditing program, visit other companies and meet teams of internal auditors from fellow quality managers and design the training as active games? The result? Every year, we have 3-4 new candidates to join the audit team, increasing the presence of quality inside the other departments of the company.
Leading Quality in a Global, Transparent and Rapidly Evolving Food Industry
Where the focus in the past was clearly on the internal production chain, we see a deeper and deeper integration of the whole supply chain, from the field and primary production until the product is at the end of the final customer. This broadening scope requires a profound knowledge of all steps, a good view of the transport organization and storage and an understanding of the behavior of products and packaging throughout their complete lifecycle. Global is the term: shipping products worldwide requires you to anticipate new regulations and legislations and integrate other required certifications and new priorities.
Customers expect more and more transparency and higher sharing of information, connecting databases and this leads us to develop new systems and certifications that ultimately end up streamlined in the “integrated management system.” Sustainability, energy management, social audits, ethics principles and compliance, every month new elements are added and this requires quality to connect more and more to other expert departments – but our responsibility is to avoid building 10 parallel systems that might start diverging and creating an unmanageable burden for the users. Our job is changing from Quality specialists to connectors for a combined system.
Jump in!! Quality is an exciting world where you will experience new challenges every day. We bear an essential responsibility towards our consumers to guarantee safe and qualitative products and you can expect a job where you will never get bored!
