Mr Neill presenting the Quality plaque to Mr Fidelis Katonga, the University Library. The library was voted by students and staff for the second year running as the department that has displayed the highest degree of quality services and operations in the last one year

"Quality management systems such as ISO 9000 can give you a sustainable competitive advantage. However, they also have the potential to cost a lot of money with no discernible benefit," says Mr Jim Neill, the Managing Director of Alpine Management, a management consulting company.

Mr Neill is familiar with quality management systems.  He was the Managing Director of the first organisation to attain an ISO Quality Management Systems Certification in Kenya. "Having ISO 9001 or any quality tool does not guarantee success. Quality needs old fashioned commitment and hard work," he told students and staff at the close of the University's Quality Week on Friday, 8th August.

"When I arrived at the Nampak factory in Thika in 1995, they already had ISO 9000 certificate number 1 in Kenya. Also TQM circles were everywhere. But that single factory produced 50% of the customer complaints for a division of 13 companies spread across Africa; the Middle East and the Caribbean. Why?" Mr Neill asked.

"Both ISO certification and TQM were impositions from the European Corporate office. Local management did it to get bonus not because of any personal belief in improving quality but because the factory was a monopoly," he said.

"ISO was not treated as a driving force for quality but simply as a badge we could show customers. As part of change, I decided to return the certificate and seek re-certification which we achieved in 1998 under old ISO 9001. We were re-certified under the new ISO 9001 in 2003," Mr Neill said.

"Quality tools are only effective if it is the focus of the management to improve quality. So during the two re-certification processes we built ISO 9001 into our fundamental management quality processes," he said.

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