Leadership in the Fourth Industrial Revolution

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The roundtable How are quality leaders navigating the Fourth Industrial Revolution? was an exclusive event for CQI Corporate Partners that took place on 27 June at the CQI offices in London.

How are quality leaders navigating the Fourth Industrial Revolution? was the topic for a roundtable discussion attended by CQI corporate members from a range of industries. The event gave participants the opportunity to debate and discuss how quality management leaders are engaging in their organisation’s digital transformation strategy development and deployment and aligning their own strategies and plans to broader organisational digital strategies.

Vincent Desmond, CQI’s CEO, opened the discussion by revealing that 40% of the 2018 CQI Workforce Insights Survey’s respondents said they have skills’ gaps in their teams and 75% find it difficult to hire new talent. He said that the CQI wants to help quality professionals overcome this issue, developing projects for education, mentoring and recognition of quality professionals.

The roundtable

I think it’s great having a group of quality professionals like this around the table, in this free-form format where you are able to share and learn from others

Participants in the roundtable discussed how Industry 4.0 will disrupt business strategies, models and supply chains. They talked about how organisations need to digitise their operational governance and assurance systems, and the challenge of how to use data to solve problems and improve processes.

Mike Buss, Head of Quality for Taylor Woodrow, who attended the event, said: “As well as gaining a better understanding of what other organisations are doing, I wanted to contribute to the discussions helping to generate ideas for how collectively we might improve the way we manage issues relevant to digital technologies and Industry 4.0, drive innovation and maximise value.”

Paul Hayes, Group Head of Quality for Lloyd’s Register, also highlighted the opportunity for sharing knowledge this roundtable discussion provided. “I think the event was excellent in terms of highlighting developments in Industry 4.0 and its effects on quality leadership. I think it’s great having a group of quality professionals like this around the table, in this free-form format where you are able to share and learn from others.”