Ride Out the Recession
Following on from a recent Buyer Beware newsletter, NQA, one of the accredited certification agencies, has recently undertaken a survey with some very revealing results.
The research surveyed 250 directors of UK SMEs and was published under the banner of “Managing with Certainty”. The research compared companies with and without certification, finding that they were:
|
Organisations with certification |
Organisations without certification |
|
|
Optimistic that their firm would emerge from the recession in a stronger position than that of its rivals |
60% | 36% |
| Better able to manage in the short term | 72% | 31% |
| More able to respond to a changing market place | 59% | 53% |
| Were rated more highly as a place to work | 86% | 74% |
It was also found that directors of companies with certification felt more able to access new markets, had higher levels of customer satisfaction and were more likely to be legally compliant.
Paul Simpson, technical manager for the Chartered Quality Institute (CQI) said “There is no doubt that effective management systems enable organisations to focus on their important processes”.
(Adapted from an article in Quality World October 2009)