Take control so it does not go off course – ISO 9001 as a strategic tool

Leadership. The English word for 'lederskab' (leadership) evokes associations with a ship where the captain stands on the bridge and decides the ship’s destination based on orders received from the ship-owner. Drawing on information about the ship’s speed, fuel consumption, weather forecast, current conditions, harbour entries, etc., the captain, in cooperation with the other ship officers, creates a plan to reach the target. There is continuous follow-up on whether the plan holds, and adjustments are made if circumstances require it, whether the causes are external or internal.

Demonstrating leadership requires that top management is able to establish the framework, as well as motivate and engage employees to collaborate in achieving the defined goals.

Management system is top management’s responsibility

A step down the hierarchy, managers translate the mission and vision (what we want) into actions and results (what we do). On the ship, it is the chief engineer, the first mate, the navigator, and the other officers who form the operational management. To assist in this, the organisation – the ship – has adopted a number of methods, procedures, guidelines and similar, which help in achieving the desired results. They have a management system.

The ISO 9001:2015 standard focuses on leadership and elevates responsibility for the management system to the top of the management hierarchy. It obliges top management to engage with and take responsibility for, among other things, the following:

• Understand the organisation’s context and conditions and determine which circumstances are relevant to its purpose – also called the mission – and strategic direction, and how these may influence the achievement of the desired outcomes. Circumstances can include technological development, the organisation’s values and culture, its DNA, societal and economic developments, organisational knowledge, etc. Which threats and opportunities can the organisation see on the horizon?
• Find out which stakeholders the organisation needs to relate to, familiarise themselves with their needs and expectations, and assess to what extent and how these stakeholders might affect the organisation’s ability to reach its goal. Examples are politicians, NGOs, neighbours, customers, and suppliers.
• Define the scope and boundaries of the management system. This also means that processes which are not part of the management system, but are important for meeting customer requirements and satisfaction, must be identified, and the necessary controls established. This includes management of outsourced processes.
• Ensure that a quality policy is formulated (what do we as an organisation want to stand for?) and define goals to support that policy.

Only when this is in place does it make sense to determine how the mission and vision will be translated into a strategy.

Defines requirements for leadership

‘Strategy’ means long-term planning – the path to be followed which leads to or towards a goal. The management system and its established methods for executing processes and following up on whether the organisation is on the right track must help management to navigate in the right direction.

This is why ISO 9001 defines a number of requirements for top management’s leadership. Top management must, among other things:

• Ensure integration of the system into the organisation’s business processes. This is to prevent the management system – or the ISO system, as it is called in many places – from being merely an appendix or a necessary evil in the organisation, but instead become the tool that management uses actively to navigate and achieve the desired objectives.
• Engage, lead and support employees, and support the other managers in the organisation in exercising their leadership.

The management system as a link

The pace of developments in the outside world has never been greater than it is now. If the organisation is to survive, ride this wave, and be present tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, top management, including the board if applicable, must set aside time to define the organisation’s purpose and vision, and the values which the organisation will stand for and operate on the basis of. Management must then relay this to all employees to create engagement and ownership of this vision.

The management system is the tool to be used as the link to transmit the top management’s mission, vision, and strategy to the most important part of the organisation: The people who must turn these ideas into concrete actions, and who must be able to act as independently thinking individuals within these frameworks. The people who help bring the organisation safely into port.