Minding the quality gap
Business leaders recognize the crucial importance of ‘quality’ but need to better acknowledge the ‘quality professionals’ who deliver it, says the Chartered Quality Institute.
93% of UK business leaders identify quality management as a key driver of business success in a new poll by the Chartered Quality Institute (CQI).
The research shows business leaders consider quality management to be key in ensuring competitive business advantage:
- 83% say it’s key to improving productivity
- 95% say it contributes strongly to customer satisfaction and retention
- 83% saying it provides justification for price premiums.
The CQI’s business leaders survey also shows the importance of achieving quality standards will keep growing.
Two-thirds of respondents believe the consequences of not meeting quality goals will be higher in the future than they are now.
More than seven out of ten survey respondents believed their companies gained competitive advantage over rivals via quality management.
The CQI welcomes business leaders’ strong backing for quality management and their understanding of the vital relationship between the application of quality management and business performance, but says that much more can be done to elevate the role of quality professionals in delivering quality management more effectively.
The survey reveals that, despite business leaders strongly advocating quality management and its many benefits, one in five quality functions have experienced headcount reductions in the last year and the majority reported no planned increase in quality investment in the future.
The CQI’s business leader survey revealed that although a majority (52%) said hiring CQI members was essential to the success of their business, only 3% make it a requirement and only a further 2% make studying towards CQI membership a requirement for employment of quality professionals.
Simon Feary, Chief Executive of the Chartered Quality Institute, says:
“Our research clearly shows UK business leaders overwhelmingly support the application of quality management systems and understand the strong correlation between quality management and business success. However, the experiences of CQI members suggests that business leaders can do much more to optimise the effectiveness of quality management and improve business performance.
“Our message to business leaders is that if they truly value quality management and want to optimize quality management’s many benefits in their business, they need to invest both in quality management and qualified and competent quality professionals.
“The benefits of quality management are many and include greater efficiency, improved value, increased customer satisfaction, brand reputation and higher employee motivation. However, it is only by employing and using competent quality professionals that businesses stand to fully realise these benefits. Organizations therefore must be absolutely sure their staff are suitably qualified. CQI membership provides that badge of quality assurance.”
Notes to Editors
- Today is World Quality Day, a day where organisations across the world celebrate and promote quality management and its benefits.
- The CQI’s business leader research consisted of structured telephone interviews, conducted by Opinium, with 120 business leaders in England and Wales. The questionnaire for these interviews was formulated by the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) on behalf of the CQI. Business leaders are defined as individuals operating at board level and equivalent. In addition, a structured web-based survey of over 500 recognised quality professionals who are members of the CQI was carried out.
- The CQI is a professional membership body which exists to advance education and knowledge of the practice of quality in industry, commerce, and the public and voluntary sectors. The CQI has a professional membership of 10,000 and its courses and qualifications provide the industry standard for quality professionals. The CQI trains in the region of 1,000 quality professionals every year.
- The CQI is working with a growing number of employers and industries who seek to have their staff trained and professionally recognized under our employer programmes, ranging from the construction industry to the defence industry.