Product category:
Building Industry QA and Benchmarks
News Release from: The Institute of Quality Assurance
Edited by the Buildingtalk Editorial
Team on 01 December 2004
IQA gets practical with new company
membership
IQA's new Company Membership offers practical business tools to engage business leaders and provide ambitious small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with a competitive edge.
IQA's new Company Membership offers practical business tools to engage business leaders and provide ambitious small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with a competitive edge The Institute of Quality Assurance (IQA) is launching its new Company Membership
This article was originally published on Buildingtalk on 3 Nov 2004 at 8.00am (UK)
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Developed in response to the changing needs of business in the 21st century, Company Membership provides businesses with a raft of practical business tools including networking opportunities, seminars and access to the IQA's considerable resources and expertise.
IQA Company Membership is 'badged' with a new 'Commitment to Quality' logo and certificate which reflects the IQA's determination to put quality at the heart of every organisation and communicate this commitment to the outside world.
Frank Steer, Director General of IQA said, "The old logo suggested some kind of accreditation - more of a badge to wear than a statement of intent.
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This new logo actually reflects our members' commitment to positive action and improving business performance and sends out a clear message about attitudes to service, to quality and to excellence." A key feature of the new membership is more interaction and information for business managers; most notably through the introduction of e-forums for company leaders.
Over half of IQA members polled in a recent survey felt that business managers did not appreciate the benefits of applying quality processes and management techniques and IQA Company Membership has been developed to address this.
Frank Steer adds, "We have to avoid the 'upstairs, downstairs' syndrome - a dislocation between the strategist and the deliverer - to ensure the same commitment to quality permeates throughout the organisation.
We want to develop a 'middle way' to foster understanding between the leaders and the led, the managers and the managed." IQA Company Membership also addresses issues concerning training and education that were raised in its recent survey.
Members can benefit from the free quality inductions on offer and preferential rates for IQA training packages, which range from seminars to bespoke in-house and public training.
Frank Steer believes that this comprehensive package will provide both SMEs and large corporates with the tools to leverage quality for business competitiveness.
Noting that some SMEs spend about 30 hours per month just dealing with regulatory compliance, he says that, "Quality professionals need to be pragmatic and help these organisations develop a quality culture that generates smart solutions." A key feature of IQA's Code of Practice and Body of Knowledge is that it does not focus on a specific model or standard but seeks to encourage knowledge sharing and the development of individuals' own competence in the application of the full range of quality management principles, tools and techniques.
Commenting on the nature of 'quality', Steer notes that, "In the East 'quality' is seen as the means to maximise potential, in the West, too often as the minimum requirement to qualify as a supplier.
We need to change our mindset.
Quality is not about systems but about people, measurement and feedback leading to improvement.".
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