Michelle Rodger: Scotland needs a mark of quality for the world stage

QUALITY is a much overused term. We boast about the quality of our staff, our customer service and our products. It trips off the tongue with nary a badge nor accreditation certificate to back up the claim.

And for those who do have a badge, what does it really mean? Consistency appears to be significantly more important than quality.

Consider the furniture manufacturer who makes dining chairs with one leg marginally shorter than the other three: as long as he consistently makes wobbly chairs, with the same leg the same amount shorter, then he gets his quality badge.

But seriously, it begs the question: just how important is a quality mark for a business? Which of the 20 or so accreditations should you go for? Which one of the three different ISO qualifications is right for you and your business?

Should you take the company through Investors in People, or try the quality framework developed by the European Foundation for Quality Management, or indeed both? How do you know which one matters?

Should you change your business processes to tie into a quality model that may well be revised, or even overtaken by a better model a few years down the line?

Everyone has his or her definition of what makes “quality”. And therein lies the problem.

On deeper examination, quality isn’t just about the better known aspects of business. Quality, and quality accreditation, applies to every single process in the running of a company. It’s about invoicing and the supply chain, recruitment, training and service, design and manufacturing, product development, leadership and communication.

The latter two are key, according to quality experts. A quality focus in business must be championed from the top and considered at every stage of a business’s process, and it must be communicated with enthusiasm and a clear explanation of why things must be done a certain way forever more.

Scotland is nowhere near the top of the league when it comes to having a quality focus on business. Other countries take it much more seriously.

The self-assessment questionnaire completed before you embark on a quality programme is based on criteria that are considered to be world-class and it’s marked out of 1,000 points. To win a Scottish award for business excellence you only need to achieve 500 points. A European quality award comes in at 700-750 points. Says a lot, doesn’t it?

In America, the Baldridge Award is the most coveted and prestigious quality award you can achieve. And to reinforce how important quality is to business in America, the award is presented to achieving organisations by the president of the United States.

Dave Bradley, chief executive of Quality Scotland, has a vocation to make business excellence a national characteristic of Scotland. He says we’ll know business quality is being taken seriously in Scotland when the First Minister presents the awards to excellent organisations, US-style.

Bradley says communication, or rather poor communication, is at the heart of it. By implementing and following quality principles you are communicating to all staff that this is key, and he says it forces businesses to communicate better.

He also believes we need to identify better ways of developing leaders. Every organisation has its own type of leadership, and they can’t all be right.

Quality leadership and communication must be in line with customer requirements. Quality is about fulfilling customer requirements at the same time as running a successful organisation. It’s about saving money and making money.

So I pose the question: if it’s so important, why don’t we have a single Scottish quality mark? One that doesn’t cost SMEs a fortune, nor need a raft of expensively suited consultants to help us achieve.

Couldn’t we have a mark that reflects Scotland’s world-renowned characteristics, and positions Scottish businesses as the most quality-focused on a world stage?

Like Obama, Alex Salmond could make the presentations and demonstrate Scotland’s commitment to quality in business at the highest level, ensuring Scotland’s standing right up there in the global business community.