Relationship Management - The Seven Quality Management Principles

In this next blog post we will be discussing the 7th and last Quality Management Principle, Relationship management. Relationship management is about managing relationships with the interested parties associated with your organization. Proper management of these various relationships has a crucial impact on the performance of your organization and can lead to a longer duration of success. Interested parties include partners, suppliers, customers,

investors, employees.

Quality Management Principles

1. Customer focus

2. Leadership

3. Engagement of people

4. Process approach

5. Improvement

6. Evidence based decision making

7. Relationship management

According to the article from ISO.org titled ‘Quality Management Principles’, these Key Benefits include:

Key benefits

• Enhanced performance of the organization and its interested parties through responding to the opportunities and constraints related to each interested party

• Common understanding of goals and values among interested parties

• Increased capability to create value for interested parties by sharing resources and competence and managing quality-related risks

• A well-managed supply chain that provides a stable flow of goods and services

Actions you can take

One of the first actions that your company can take is determining what types and levels of relationships you have with all interested parties. It is valuable to then prioritize the importance of each interested party and understand the steps to be taken in order to continue and deepen the relationship. This isa vital step to ensure you are not spending more time and resources on a smaller interested party than one that is crucial for business. Once you have organized the various relationships, allocate your organization’s time and energy appropriately to the most vital relationships and spend less time growing the smaller ones.

Another action that is critical to consider is not only focusing on the short-term time frame of these relationships but also the long term of all interested parties. Yes, the short term is important now, but the long term is focused on the future and growth of the organization, which is essential to the company’s success. As always, measuring performance within these relationships and with each interested party is pivotal. You must understand what can be approved upon and the variables that are important to each interested party to foster a thriving and growing relationship.

Having intensive connections and relationships with interested parties and using common goals and transparency from both sides is important. An article from dqsglobal.com titled ‘Seven quality management principles’ discusses the tools used to support Relationship management and guide relationships with your interested parties:

Take advantage of your relationships and foster them by

• Planning regular exchanges
• Building (partner) networks to maintain mutual relationships
• Regular feedback mechanisms
• (in-house) trade fairs, customer and employee days
• Joint projects and developments

What can you achieve?

With a good relationship management you achieve multiple benefits through

• Up-to-date knowledge about the needs and demands of your interested parties
• Early recognition of future trends
• Creation of synergy effects and new joint opportunities
• Better communication, also at the process interfaces
• Good opportunities for mutual recommendation

Overall, developing strong relationships with all interested parties while prioritizing and understanding the needs of each is critical to the success of your business. It is important to receive feedback while collaborating with each interested party and implement the steps needed for improvement and development. Focus on balancing the short term in these relationships with the importance of developing long-term relationships. Applying these relationship management tools will make all the difference!

Other Helpful and Informative Blog Posts -

ISO 9001 – The Seven Quality Management Principles (QMP)

ISO 9001 – The Seven Quality Management Principles (QMP)

Customer Focus - The Seven Quality Management Principles

Customer Focus - The Seven Quality Management Principles

Leadership - The Seven Quality Management Principles

Leadership - The Seven Quality Management Principles

Engagement of people - The Seven Quality Management Principles

Engagement of people - The Seven Quality Management Principles

Process approach - The Seven Quality Management Principles

Process approach - The Seven Quality Management Principles

Improvement- The Seven Quality Management Principles

Improvement- The Seven Quality Management Principles

Evidence based decision making - The Seven Quality Management Principles

Evidence based decision making - The Seven Quality Management Principles

Resources -

Quality management principles

Seven quality management principles | DQS

Seven Quality Management Principles in a Nutshell | Quality Gurus