Head of profession speaks to Director magazine

Corporate governance has arisen as a big topic for discussion over the past few months. The CQI's work with the Institute of Directors has brought this topic to the forefront of the agenda and here is what Estelle Clark had to say on the subject when featured in this months Director magazine in their article, 'Good Governance: Putting the UK business house in order':

The IoD has initiated a vital debate around governance. A common criticism of the UK Corporate Governance Code is that it has led to compliance with a limited set of mechanistic corporate governance factors and has ceased to provide the level of confidence in performance that organisations and their stakeholders require in our fast-moving and globalised world. While some might argue that these factors were never designed to be predictors of behaviour and culture in the context of 21st-century business, others may say they remain relevant. Society rightly believes that a corporate fish rots from the head, a complex operating environment being no excuse for doing business at the expense of doing the right thing. And society not only judges but also sentences organisations through deterioration in reputation and an impact on business value. Indeed, a head with a weak nervous-system link to the corporate ‘body’ can no longer be accepted as a reasonable way of going about things when the body’s actions and decisions compromise the organisation’s intent and its stakeholders’ interests.

So, how does the head of a large complex organisation ensure that the operational body is fit to deliver strategy and to take account of the balance of stakeholder needs? Put another way, how do the executive and non-executive teams have confidence that the organisation does not have a horsemeat scandal waiting to emerge in its supply chain? How can it be sure that ever-shorter cycle times are not resulting in product design decisions that compromise safety or compliance requirements? And how will it understand the potential impact of its own decisions on the operation and its stakeholders?

The Chartered Quality Institute (CQI) and its community of nearly 20,000 quality professional business partners exist to provide that insight and confidence through a closed-loop system of operational governance, assurance and improvement. This acts as the nervous-system link between leadership teams and their organisations, answering key questions for all:

• Is leadership intent defined so as to capture the full range of stakeholder requirements?
• Is leadership intent effectively implemented, producing the desired outcomes for the organisations and its stakeholders?
• Is there a culture of objective evaluation and a commitment to continually improve?

In line with our Royal Charter, the CQI will be working over the coming months and years to help business leaders reinvigorate operational governance.

Click on the link below to read the full article.