Strategic quality

Course details

The objective of the day is to understand: 

• how to describe the organisation as a living, dynamic and social  system through which business objectives and outcomes are delivered i.e. the real world, the business as normal 
• the extent to which this 'real-world' can sensibly be defined as key business processes, realising that the 'real-world' and its complexity cannot be fully documented or defined 
• the limiting effect of past quality management practices and their constraint on capability, risk and performance management 
• how individual behaviour and culture deliver results and drive the level of risk 

The aim of the day is not to cover traditional quality control tools or tactical numerical based techniques but break through to understand the strategic application of quality principles, where different skills, knowledge, tools and techniques are required.

Course dates

Course prices

Who should attend

Quality managers, auditors, risk managers who have introduced or audited a management system or used traditional tactical quality tools and techniques, but now seek to understand how their role can develop to become a support to the delivery of business objectives owned by other Senior Managers.

Why you should attend 

There may be a disconnect with Senior Management, who see quality as something that is done 'on the side' by their Quality Manager and not owned or delivered by them - they may just not feel they have a critical role to play in quality.  Engagement with Senior Management at a business level may be difficult to achieve and a structure is needed to accomplish this. Or maybe people simply question the value of quality, auditing and Standards such as ISO9001. You may be looking for a way to re-energise and re-launch Quality to better support your business. 

Course content

Understanding what strategic quality is and what it means to the organisation's management

• The role of quality in the business planning process
• Systemic v systematic quality thinking - open and closed systems / processes, the critical impact on the role of quality and quality strategies deployed
• The evolving direction for quality from a tactical quality control tool to a strategic management discipline
• Business process frameworks for the sustainable business
• Defining business performance measures linked to outcomes and objectives
• Understanding culture, appropriate leadership styles and related strategies
• Importance of auditing behaviours and reporting risk to the delivery of objectives, outcomes and performance drivers - case studies to describe the practice

Course Style

A workshop style is used with plenty of practical explanation as to how to elevate quality to a business level, talking a business language.

 After this delegates will be able to:

Engage more effectively with Senior Management to support the delivery of their objectives

• Understand the ambiguity and complexity that exists in a real-world (non-documented) management system and be better prepared to help manage this more effectively
• Understand the importance of people's behaviour and business culture to the delivery of objectives and risk and where in the management system this impacts on the activities of the quality professional

Course tutors

Ian Rosam

Ian Rosam has helped organisations build and implement process based whole-organisation management systems using the principles of System Thinking. This means seeing the organisation as a living entity – ever changing and evolving as to adapt to the business environment in which it finds itself. 

These principles are based on good management best practice and organisational design needed to implement Standards such as ISO9001, other standards and Excellence Models.  The focus is concerned with business performance and the way good quality principles contribute to this.  From this real-world understanding, Ian and his colleagues have successfully challenged the existing approach to auditing, turning auditing from a low-value, tactical issue to a strategic management tool indicating the risk of not achieving business objectives.  Ian is more than happy to share what he knows in this cutting edge thinking and to help people to evolve both their management system and the auditing approaches they use.

Ian is a member of the Chartered Quality Institute, Institute of Bankers and the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.  He is also D32 and D33 qualified to assess individual competence.

He regularly contributes to the CQI newsletter and Quality World, with articles focused on challenging the status-quo. He has also co-authored 7 books which have been published by BSI Business Information, extending from 9001, through auditing to Business Sustainability and CSR.  He is also the Co-Director of a Certification Body.

Ian has facilitated many workshops including public events for BSI as well as those needed to meet internal company requirements.  He has presented at numerous international conferences, including ones on the application of ISO9001, the future of assessment and auditing and on effective management of CSR / Corporate Governance.

Rob Peddle

Rob Peddle is a director of The High Performance Organisation Group (www.the-hpo.com) based in the UK. He is a passionate advocate of ‘System Thinking’ - especially the capability this gives organisations to deliver the broad range of business requirements now demanded by stakeholders. A Chartered Mechanical Engineer by training, he has wide experience across many different business sectors. This broad view of many organisations and what makes them effective is the foundation of his strong belief that process management starts in the boardroom and is an essential first step towards delivering the complex demands of every organisation in the 21st century.

He has co-developed the 360 degree behavioural assessment techniques needed for Auditing in the 21st Century. Delivered online, supported where needed by onsite review, these report organisational risk, effectiveness against the drivers of business performance, business maturity and compliance. This approach has greatly enhanced audits, such as those for 9001, internal process audits, customer satisfaction etc, significantly maturing audit activity for many organisations.

Rob is also well published, having written a number of books and articles on System Thinking and business auditing. These provide significant ‘real world’ support to the delivery of Corporate Social Responsibility and business effectiveness.

CQI training courses

At the CQI we offer the very best in quality training for both experienced quality professionals and those completely new to the field. Our highly experienced trainers present a range of public courses covering a wide variety of topics, both introductory and advanced.

Fully flexible in-house training packages can be individually tailored to suit the needs of your organization and are conducted on site at your premises by our experienced trainers. We can offer any of our public portfolio of courses in-house, as well as many other topics. Please contact us for more information or to discuss.

Contact CQI Training:

T: +44 (0) 20 7245 6696
F: +44 (0) 20 7245 6788
E: training@thecqi.org