Qualitime: features brief, true-to-life anecdotes written by our colleague Fred Vahlkamp. With a little imagination, these stories can be linked to topics such as quality management, risk management, and entrepreneurship. Enjoy reading!
Logic takes you from A to B, but imagination takes you everywhere – a vision that is crucial in today’s ever-changing world of business.
Corporate social responsibility, changes in people and organizations, and rapidly advancing technology are driving businesses to adapt. Of course, every company is always in motion to some degree, so what’s the difference? In my view, today’s movement is still primarily based on existing principles, often documented in management reports.
From numbers to senses: The loss of human perception
The question is: do we still see, feel, smell, taste, and hear, or have these mechanisms been reduced to mere numbers and basic logic? Einstein famously said, “Logic takes you from A to B, imagination takes you everywhere.” Applying the five senses to business may seem abstract, and I haven’t even included the sixth sense.
For me, a company is fundamentally a collection of people aiming to survive and achieve something. Remove these people from the company and place them in a jungle, and you’ll likely see immediate changes in roles and relationships. At the very least, each member of the group would fully rely on their senses and share their experiences with the group.
Organic collaboration and autonomy in business
In a corporate setting, much of this organic character has been systematically removed. This doesn’t necessarily benefit the individual autonomy within the group. The need to survive and use your senses diminishes when others think for you.
What I want to emphasize here is that as a business, achieving movement in a more organic way is no simple task. It’s not just about reacting to external developments—it also requires a deep, inward look.
Restoring responsibilities and freedom of action to where they belong is easier said than done. Some people seem unwilling or unable to function this way. My advice: book a return ticket to the jungle.
The path to responsible movement as an organization
Responsible movement can only happen when at least one thing is in order: awareness.
- Awareness of the consequences of your actions for both your organization and the societal environment you’re part of.
- Awareness of your impact on the well-being of people, animals, and the environment.
- Awareness that what’s ordinary today may be surpassed tomorrow by the idea of a brilliant mind, conceived somewhere in an attic.
Signals come from everywhere and aren’t always captured in management reports with numbers on production, safety, quality, and financial results.
The new role of the quality manager as the ‘Corporate Antenna’
A quality manager must be given the opportunity to develop into a ‘corporate antenna.’ This role places the quality manager much more centrally than is often the case today. From being necessary to meet compliance requirements, I foresee a shift to being essential for movement—at the right time, in the right direction, and at the right speed.
This is quite a challenge that demands new skills—not only from the quality manager but also from the organization’s leadership. With change as the only constant, merely keeping things running is no longer sufficient.
The future: Quality manager as Awareness manager
Awareness is the key to movement—for yourself, your organization, and the society you’re part of.
This evolution transforms today’s quality manager into tomorrow’s awareness manager. Someone who influences the organization by ensuring the right information reaches the right person at the right time. An architect of a safeguarding system that documents without hindering movement—a system that records what’s necessary to function, not primarily to meet the demands of third parties.
