Quality: Total involvement

Quality must be integrated into every phase of the business to be totally effective. I can recommend the article: Quality from scratch: a model for small business* which is well written and offers sound advice.

The best time to start a quality programme is during the initial planning for the business - integrating quality into an exisiting company culture is more difficult, but no less critical. Micro-enterprises are in a good position to change culture though, as they can take quick action and communication channels are generally short (1-3 people). And as owners of micro-enterprises we have aquired decision making skills!

The article also provides a nice set of references: the Entrepreneur's Quality Library, and an useful list of Quality Involvement Models. These will no doubt be very useful tools in the formulation of an easy and practical set of criteria for attaining the Quality Charted visualised for our region.

"A truly integrated quality system is based on three
principles: customer focus, process improvement and total
involvement."

*Quality Progress, July 2004:27-35

Walk the Talk

Walk the talk has become a cliche because it strikes a chord - practising what you preach (another cliche!) makes sense, but doing is not always as simple as saying...

To quote Henry Ford "Whether you think you can, or that you can't, you are usually right". So it's really a matter of wanting to do it right.

Quality and professionalism begins at home. If we are to be eligible to join the cluster of quality approved businesses, we have to make sure that we show by example that we operate with integrity.

So let's take each step of the business' home or office-based activities and see what we can do to ensure that our clients percieve us as professionals.

The Office part 1

I blogged on this topic on Mikronet in 2006. There will be very many opinions on the topic so we'll stick to those that apply generally.

The overall look should be professional. The style should reflect your business. e.g. if your field is advertising, the office could display examples of your work. My work involves Business Intelligence, translation and language teaching, so the office is small and functional. I do have a meeting room facility - our garden room is used for the occasional meeting, but I generally come to the client's premises for meetings.

Working in a cluttered environment does not suit me. Keeping tidy when working in a small space is not always easy, so a routine has eveolved over the years. I have a series of boxes where I keep stuff that is on-going, or projects that have been tendered for and awaiting results. Anything to do with accounts is filed immediately in a ring-binder. Just stuck in as they are dealt with, and then sorted out and entered in the accounts once a month - but we'll cover that when we get to that section.

I do have 'heaps' - I think every single Micro or SME will have those, as we are so busy dealing with everything that they are inevitable, but at least I know what is in the heap and know that I can lay my hands on any paperwork relating to any ongoing project. The paperwork has a corresponding set of files on the pc which obviously is much more comprehensive than the paperwork.

ISO Sensible?

I was talking about the 'quality project' at a social gathering recently (not to bore - I was asked to explain!) and after I had described what I actually wanted to accomplish, one of the group, who is an engineer and daily works to the standards required by ISOs, DINs etc. said "You are describing an 'ISO Sensible' - now get a move on and define exactly what you consider to be the benefits, drawbacks and set out a clear methodology."

Very sound advice. And I'll work on the definitions, which will no doubt be sharpened and made more precise as the methodology is tried and tested.

So the next sequence of blogs will cover quality and profesionalism beginning at home.

When that is sorted, we'll tackle the next section - our clients/customers. As the old saying goes - you only have once chance to make a first impression.

Then - quality professional work and interaction with collegues and competitors.

And - next - how to collaborate trans-disciplinary (across skills and professional training) - how a cluster f SMEs and micro-enterprises, by collaborating, can tackle bigger projects while still maintaining their independence and ability to make decisions.

No doubt there will be other sections to deal with (after all I'm still at the defining stage) but I hope that once the project is better known there'll be input readers of the blog and Twitter feeds.