Now that's a question that challenges its answerers time and time again. No unequivocal answer has yet been found. While waiting for enlightenment, the best thing to do is to focus on continuous improvement, i.e. to try to do better than yesterday, time after time. That's the easy part, isn't it?

Clear guidelines for action are important, and the company's vision tends to come true when decisions are constantly made in the light of the strategy. This was internalised well in advance, but the importance of strategy, vision and mission was more or less lost on the whole team. The values (openness, agility, care and firmness) were already so ingrained in the subconscious that it was easy to put them down on paper. 

To get some clarity, it was decided to invite the first consultant to visit. We got to know the café and caterers at Tupos Abc while scribbling yellow slips of paper and throwing around bright ideas. After a couple of sessions, the first version of the A-Perustus strategy was born. The strategy has since been refined time and time again, and the package is starting to look like a diamond in the rough. Updating is certainly a big part of the management team's daily work.

As part of the strategy work, a number of major objectives were set to ensure its implementation. One major objective was to raise the management system to A level. The decision to certify the management system was a natural progression towards this objective, so that the achievement could be measured. The certification was also expected to provide a nice additional guarantee for customers. In order to provide sufficient challenge, the safety management system was also included.

In school, I learned that the worst mistake a company can make when it comes to quality is to hire a consultant or a thesis writer to write a quality manual. But the last couple of years have taught me that this is not so simple either.

Let's get on with the next consultant. This guy made it clear right away that he was here to stay. The quality manual became a concept book and the requirements of the standards became familiar, one by one. The starting point was the management system itself, but the standards naturally guided the documentation and challenged us to think.

It's easy to see now that, even if you still don't know the answer to the first question, one of the most important steps is to make a good management system part of your daily work. The decision to also certify the system is a great boost.

Yes, and involving a consultant in the management system certification process is a good solution, if the person chosen has charisma, a strong voice and the ability to listen and discuss. And a certain courage to leave the assembly of the missing pieces to the client himself. In our case, this was the case. Thank you Hannu!

- Marko Liukko