One of the most dramatic transformations of business excellence is taking place as we speak.
Societal attitudes and global awareness is extending the purpose of business from delivering shareholder value to delivering sustainable value to a planet that we all share.
These new requirements for sustainability have been packaged as Environment, Society and Governance Standards, or ESG.
Shareholders have responded with massive capital movements to ESG focused organisations, and away from those that do not conform to these new standards.
Consumers have responded by demanding that the products they are consuming have not been produced at the expense of the environment and the labour force.
Exposed 'Greenwashing' has cost companies massive losses of market capitalisation and reputation.
This all leads to an urgent need to redefine what business excellence and quality is. Past models of excellence need to transform. And measurements need to mutate.
Keith's talk at the 27th Asia Pacific Quality organization (APQO) International Conference last month covered the growth of new models of excellence that have come out of global events such as SOC27. These new models are administered by organisations such as the International Sustainable Standards Board (ISSB) that was set up as a result.
It then explored how organisations need to ensure that they know how they are living to those standards, where the shortfalls are, and what to do about them.
The session featured examples of how auditors have conducted audits, produced reports, and provided benchmarking against ESG - so that clients can develop their improvement plans.
It concluded by emphasising how fundamental this shift is for the quality industry. And how important it is to use and understand the new tools that will support them.
If you would like to talk to Keith about this very interesting new area of development and find out more; make contact.