Recently I spoke with a retired CEO of a successful semiconductor manufacturer who said to me when I asked him about quality, "if there is care you will find quality." If a company really cares about its customers it will invest in quality. That is what he has experienced over the years.
It is the object of our care that is important. Quality cares about customers. This goes beyond respect as important as that is. Care includes:
the provision of what is necessary for the health, welfare, maintenance, and protection of someone or something.
serious attention or consideration applied to doing something correctly or to avoid damage or risk.
Many people talk about the importance of a strong culture for a company to succeed at what it does. A strong culture can reinforce values, help provide direction to employees, and fill in the gaps between what is written in policies and procedures and how things are actually done. That is why alignment of culture with strategy is so important. If your culture is at odds with your strategy it is impossible to advance outcomes. However, trying to come up with a consistent culture that supports the values and strategies of an organization is not easy.
Companies consist of different kinds of activities that require their own approach and have there own culture. Geoffrey Moore in his book, "Zone to Win" suggests four zones: performance, productivity, incubation, and transformation. Each of these is managed differently, has different strategies, and ultimately have their own cultures. In fact, one could go further and suggest that there are even subcultures beyond the ones for each zone. One could imagine a culture for each value that a company has: a safety culture, a quality culture, a risk culture, a learning culture and so on. Now add to this each person's own culture and no wonder companies have a difficult time bringing everyone onto the same page.
This is where having a culture of care helps. Companies that care pursue excellence, work on doing things right, and strive to make sure that they look after their workers, customers, and environment. A culture like this would go along way to bringing everyone on the same page.
If there is care you will find excellence
If there is care you will find safety
if there is care you will find quality
if there is care you will find loyalty
if there is care you will find integrity
The great part of working in compliance is working with people who do care about things that really matter.
If "C" in compliance stands for anything it stands for "Care"