(校稿任务) 第九十七篇 Quality Starts at the Board
本帖最后由 小编D 于 2013-3-4 14:56 编辑
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翻译：huoxu_211
Quality Starts at the Board
质量管理始于董事会
Does your company consider its customers key stakeholders?
你的公司把质量视作客户的重要利益吗?
Close your eyes and make a mental list of companies worldwide that use quality as their strategic weapon for achieving value for shareholders. Chances are you have some great examples, but most likely it’s a small list. Given the huge number of companies in every industry that aren’t on your list, I'd like to highlight an aspect of corporate governance that deserves much more focus than it receives in most organizations.
闭上眼睛在脑袋里列一份把质量控制当做实现股东价值的战略性决策的全球公司的清单。很可能你能举出一些声名卓著的公司，但很可能你只能列出一份非常短的清单。鉴于各行各业都有数量庞大的公司不在你的清单内，我想强调，对大多数公司来说，公司治理存在一个需要更多关注的方面：质量。
Do boards in the companies you know do a good job representing their customers as key stakeholders? We’re talking about the customer who pays for the company’s product or service here. Why don’t we have more names on our lists? Isn’t this a great opportunity for sustained financial performance just waiting to be tapped across industries and countries?
根据你的了解，你公司的董事们在向大家宣贯顾客是重要的利益相关方方面是否做得很好？我们讨论的顾客是指为公司的产品或服务付费的人。为什么我们的清单上没有更多的公司呢？对于各个国家和行业来说，难道这不是一个巨大的，急需发掘的提升公司财务业绩的机会吗？
Perhaps you missed a few names, given the one-minute constraint you were working with. However, the responsibility for your short list, in large part, lies with companies’ boards. What is a board’s role in helping companies make quality a key strategic weapon? For this article, “quality” means the combination of product or service quality, customer-focus, productivity, cost and waste awareness, and continual improvement.
鉴于你被限定用一分钟来列这个清单，也许你遗漏了一些公司。不过，之所以你的名单很短，很大程度上责任在于公司的各位董事们。在帮助公司把质量作为一个战略性武器方面，董事们应该扮演什么样的角色呢？本文中，质量包含产品或服务的质量，顾客的关注点，生产效率，成本意识和浪费意识及持续改进。
Do boards adequately represent their customers?
董事们充分的了解并阐述了他们客户的需求、利益吗？
In most companies, the quality of products and service as experienced by customers is what differentiates the company from its competition. In that case, shouldn’t quality be a board meeting topic? Unless one is only interested in the very short term, customer satisfaction is a key determinant of sustained financial results and shareholder value.
对于大多数公司来讲，他们与竞争对手的区别就在于产品的质量和客户对服务的感受。在这种情况下，难道质量不应该成为董事会议的一个议题吗？对于持续的保证财务业绩和股东利益来说，顾客满意度是一个非常重要的决定因素，除非一个公司仅仅对非常短期的业绩感兴趣。
The average CEO’s tenure is getting shorter. This could be one reason why few CEOs look beyond short-term financial outcomes. Although there are notable exceptions, most CEOs have no clear thoughts on institution building or sustaining the financial outcomes beyond the short term. Many CEOs never get questioned on anything beyond their results for the last quarter, or their plans for the next quarter, or at best, the next year. Some CEOs are required to present their plan for the next year or more, but these presentations rarely go beyond guesstimates of sales and profit numbers.
首席执行官（以下简称CEO）们的任期正在变得越来越短，这可能是个别CEO只关注短期财务业绩的一个原因。虽然存在着典型的例外，大多数CEO对任期（比较短的时间）之外的机构建设或持续的业绩表现没有明确的计划。很多CEO从来没有为他最后一个季度之后的业绩或他任期后的一个季度或年度的计划被责问。一些CEO被要求阐述他下一年或更长时间的计划，不过他们的业务陈述一般都是对销售额和利润数字的瞎猜。
The board becomes the instigator
董事会应该成为激励者
For this level of accountability to change, the first thing that must happen is for the board to start asking questions at board meetings that it has never asked before.
有鉴于此，应该改变下CEO的职责。首先，董事们应该在董事会上问一下以前没有问过的问题：
What are our customers saying... about our company... about competition?
我们的顾客是怎样评价我们的公司和我们的竞争对手的？
How many customer complaints did we get last month? Last quarter?
上个月，上个季度，我们被客户投诉了多少次？
What are the most frequent complaints?
客户投诉最多的是什么？
What percent of these complaints were resolved within our target time?
客户投诉中，有多大比例是在预期时间内被解决的？
What improvement actions were done as part of the process to prevent such defects?
作为预防类似问题的一个步骤，我们采取了那些改进措施？
Also, the board must insist on receiving this information:
同时，董事会必须开始接收一下信息：
Examples of continuous, permanent improvements during the last quarter
上季度采取的持续改进的例子
Examples of identification and elimination of waste
辨识和消除浪费的例子
Examples of productivity improvement or cost reduction
提高生产效率和降低成本的例子
Avoiding death by detail
避免死于细节
Some may argue that these questions and examples are “too tactical” or “operational,” and that boards should focus more on “strategic” questions. However, these questions are well worth the board’s time. If quality is a key determinant of your company’s competitive success, sustained financial performance, and shareholder value creation, then quality most certainly is the board’s business. Obviously, the board’s involvement can be kept at a reasonably high level while ensuring that the CEO and senior executives go into more detail.
一些人可能会认为这些问题和例子太战术性、太基础，董事会应该更多的关注战略性的问题。不过，如果质量是你公司在市场竞争中胜出、持续保证财务业绩、为股东创造价值的一个重要因素的话，这些问题完全值得董事会投入时间。显然，董事会对质量事物的参与程度应保持在一个合理的高程度上，以确保CEO和高级管理人员参与的更深入。
In addition to allotting time to discussing these questions and examples during board meetings, companies could have a “quality committee” similar to other (often statutory) committees for auditing, investment, and risk management. The quality committee could be headed by one of the board’s directors.
在董事会议中，除了拿出时间和精力讨论这些问题和事物，公司应该设立质量委员会，类似于其他的审计、投资、风险管理委员会。质量委员会可以由董事会的一个董事来领导。
Why can’t one director represent the customer as a key stakeholder?
为什么不能由一个董事来代表顾客作为一个重要的利益相关方？
While on paper boards are expected to represent the interests of various stakeholders, in practice, most boards end up only representing the interests of the larger shareholders. If a company has several directors on the board, do they all need to be asking the same kind of financial and regulatory questions? No doubt, financial and compliance aspects are important, and boards must govern these. But why can’t a couple of directors focus on these aspects, while at least one director represents the interests of the customers who pay for the company’s products?
尽管在名义上，大家期望董事会代表各种利益相关方的利益，实际上，大多数董事会最终仅代表大的股东的利益。如果一个公司的董事会有好几位董事，难道需要向他们全员询问同样的财务和管理的问题吗？毫无疑问，财务的和承诺的内容非常重要，董事会需要对它们进行管理。为什么不能由几个董事来关注上述两个方面，同时，至少有一个董事来代表为公司产品付钱的顾客的利益呢？
Why the board must ask these questions
董事会为什么必须要问这些问题？
Whose job is quality? The answer is everybody’s, but it must begin at the top. The questions the board must ask and information the board must insist upon must start with the board; if the board doesn’t ask these questions, CEOs won’t ask these questions. And if CEOs don’t ask these questions, no one in the organization will ask these questions.
谁来为质量负责？答案是每个人都要为质量负责，不过质量管理必须始于最高层。董事会必须问文中提到的问题，董事会必须了解某些信息必须始于董事会。如果董事会不问这些问题，CEO们不会问这些问题。如果CEO们不问这些问题，组织里就不会有人问这些问题。
Although this may seem to be common sense, the sad truth is that many CEOs today have a short-term agenda because they are seldom questioned about institution building. This short-term focus could actually prove to be harmful to the interests of customers (and eventually to the business and shareholders) .
虽然这看起来是常识，不过一个不幸的事实是由于CEO们很少被问到关于机构建设的问题，今天许多CEO只有短期的规划。这种只关注短期业绩的行为可能最终被证明会伤害到顾客的利益（最终会伤害到公司的生意和股东的利益）。
The following are some indicators of organizations with progressive boards that focus on quality and customers:
以下是一些关注质量和客户的、先进的董事会的一些特征：
Quality is an agenda item at board meetings
质量是董事会议的一项议事日程；
Quality- and customer-related measures form part of the CEO’s performance evaluation
质量及顾客相关的措施是衡量CEO的表现的一个方面
The board encourages thinking and measuring performance from the customer’s perspective
董事会鼓励从客户的角度去思考和衡量绩效
There are distinct and dedicated teams focused on continuous improvement and quality for customers. These teams are empowered and encouraged to act as the “representative of the customer.”
公司设立独立的、专门的小组来代表客户关注持续改进和产品质量
Senior management is appointed and held accountable for quality and continuous improvement
公司指定高层管理者对质量和持续改进负责
Conclusion
结论
Board members, including independent directors, must start asking quality- and customer-related questions at board meetings, and ask them regularly and repeatedly. If boards don’t ask these questions, there will be no quality; without quality, there will be no customers; and without customers, there will be no business. Competitors whose boards do ask these questions will walk away with your customers and your business.
董事会成员，包括独立董事，必须开始在董事会议上问质量及顾客相关的问题，并且要定期的、重复的问。如果董事会不问这些问题，质量将无法保证；没有质量，公司将没有客户；没有客户，公司的生意也就完了。那些关注这些问题的竞争对手将抢走你的顾客和生意。
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
关于作者
Arun Hariharan
Arun Hariharan is a quality, knowledge management, and performance management practitioner. He has worked with business leaders of several large companies and helped them achieve substantial and sustained results through quality and customer focus. His is currently president of quality and knowledge management at Reliance Capital, India. Hariharan is a frequent speaker at quality and knowledge management events around the world. E-mail him at arun_hariharan@rediffmail.com.
Arun Hariharan是一位质量管理、知识管理及绩效管理的从业者。他和几个大公司的商务领导者合作，并通过关注质量和客户帮助他们实现巨大的、持续的成功。他目前是印度信实资金公司的质量和知识管理部的董事长。Hariharan经常在全世界就质量和知识管理活动发表演讲。他的邮箱是arun_hariharan@rediffmail.com。
来自http://www.qualitydigest.com
请对以下文章有翻译兴趣的组员留下你的预计完成时间和邮箱地址，以便小编登记翻译者信息以及文章最终完成时间
翻译：huoxu_211
Quality Starts at the Board
质量管理始于董事会
Does your company consider its customers key stakeholders?
你的公司把质量视作客户的重要利益吗?
Close your eyes and make a mental list of companies worldwide that use quality as their strategic weapon for achieving value for shareholders. Chances are you have some great examples, but most likely it’s a small list. Given the huge number of companies in every industry that aren’t on your list, I'd like to highlight an aspect of corporate governance that deserves much more focus than it receives in most organizations.
闭上眼睛在脑袋里列一份把质量控制当做实现股东价值的战略性决策的全球公司的清单。很可能你能举出一些声名卓著的公司，但很可能你只能列出一份非常短的清单。鉴于各行各业都有数量庞大的公司不在你的清单内，我想强调，对大多数公司来说，公司治理存在一个需要更多关注的方面：质量。
Do boards in the companies you know do a good job representing their customers as key stakeholders? We’re talking about the customer who pays for the company’s product or service here. Why don’t we have more names on our lists? Isn’t this a great opportunity for sustained financial performance just waiting to be tapped across industries and countries?
根据你的了解，你公司的董事们在向大家宣贯顾客是重要的利益相关方方面是否做得很好？我们讨论的顾客是指为公司的产品或服务付费的人。为什么我们的清单上没有更多的公司呢？对于各个国家和行业来说，难道这不是一个巨大的，急需发掘的提升公司财务业绩的机会吗？
Perhaps you missed a few names, given the one-minute constraint you were working with. However, the responsibility for your short list, in large part, lies with companies’ boards. What is a board’s role in helping companies make quality a key strategic weapon? For this article, “quality” means the combination of product or service quality, customer-focus, productivity, cost and waste awareness, and continual improvement.
鉴于你被限定用一分钟来列这个清单，也许你遗漏了一些公司。不过，之所以你的名单很短，很大程度上责任在于公司的各位董事们。在帮助公司把质量作为一个战略性武器方面，董事们应该扮演什么样的角色呢？本文中，质量包含产品或服务的质量，顾客的关注点，生产效率，成本意识和浪费意识及持续改进。
Do boards adequately represent their customers?
董事们充分的了解并阐述了他们客户的需求、利益吗？
In most companies, the quality of products and service as experienced by customers is what differentiates the company from its competition. In that case, shouldn’t quality be a board meeting topic? Unless one is only interested in the very short term, customer satisfaction is a key determinant of sustained financial results and shareholder value.
对于大多数公司来讲，他们与竞争对手的区别就在于产品的质量和客户对服务的感受。在这种情况下，难道质量不应该成为董事会议的一个议题吗？对于持续的保证财务业绩和股东利益来说，顾客满意度是一个非常重要的决定因素，除非一个公司仅仅对非常短期的业绩感兴趣。
The average CEO’s tenure is getting shorter. This could be one reason why few CEOs look beyond short-term financial outcomes. Although there are notable exceptions, most CEOs have no clear thoughts on institution building or sustaining the financial outcomes beyond the short term. Many CEOs never get questioned on anything beyond their results for the last quarter, or their plans for the next quarter, or at best, the next year. Some CEOs are required to present their plan for the next year or more, but these presentations rarely go beyond guesstimates of sales and profit numbers.
首席执行官（以下简称CEO）们的任期正在变得越来越短，这可能是个别CEO只关注短期财务业绩的一个原因。虽然存在着典型的例外，大多数CEO对任期（比较短的时间）之外的机构建设或持续的业绩表现没有明确的计划。很多CEO从来没有为他最后一个季度之后的业绩或他任期后的一个季度或年度的计划被责问。一些CEO被要求阐述他下一年或更长时间的计划，不过他们的业务陈述一般都是对销售额和利润数字的瞎猜。
The board becomes the instigator
董事会应该成为激励者
For this level of accountability to change, the first thing that must happen is for the board to start asking questions at board meetings that it has never asked before.
有鉴于此，应该改变下CEO的职责。首先，董事们应该在董事会上问一下以前没有问过的问题：
What are our customers saying... about our company... about competition?
我们的顾客是怎样评价我们的公司和我们的竞争对手的？
How many customer complaints did we get last month? Last quarter?
上个月，上个季度，我们被客户投诉了多少次？
What are the most frequent complaints?
客户投诉最多的是什么？
What percent of these complaints were resolved within our target time?
客户投诉中，有多大比例是在预期时间内被解决的？
What improvement actions were done as part of the process to prevent such defects?
作为预防类似问题的一个步骤，我们采取了那些改进措施？
Also, the board must insist on receiving this information:
同时，董事会必须开始接收一下信息：
Examples of continuous, permanent improvements during the last quarter
上季度采取的持续改进的例子
Examples of identification and elimination of waste
辨识和消除浪费的例子
Examples of productivity improvement or cost reduction
提高生产效率和降低成本的例子
Avoiding death by detail
避免死于细节
Some may argue that these questions and examples are “too tactical” or “operational,” and that boards should focus more on “strategic” questions. However, these questions are well worth the board’s time. If quality is a key determinant of your company’s competitive success, sustained financial performance, and shareholder value creation, then quality most certainly is the board’s business. Obviously, the board’s involvement can be kept at a reasonably high level while ensuring that the CEO and senior executives go into more detail.
一些人可能会认为这些问题和例子太战术性、太基础，董事会应该更多的关注战略性的问题。不过，如果质量是你公司在市场竞争中胜出、持续保证财务业绩、为股东创造价值的一个重要因素的话，这些问题完全值得董事会投入时间。显然，董事会对质量事物的参与程度应保持在一个合理的高程度上，以确保CEO和高级管理人员参与的更深入。
In addition to allotting time to discussing these questions and examples during board meetings, companies could have a “quality committee” similar to other (often statutory) committees for auditing, investment, and risk management. The quality committee could be headed by one of the board’s directors.
在董事会议中，除了拿出时间和精力讨论这些问题和事物，公司应该设立质量委员会，类似于其他的审计、投资、风险管理委员会。质量委员会可以由董事会的一个董事来领导。
Why can’t one director represent the customer as a key stakeholder?
为什么不能由一个董事来代表顾客作为一个重要的利益相关方？
While on paper boards are expected to represent the interests of various stakeholders, in practice, most boards end up only representing the interests of the larger shareholders. If a company has several directors on the board, do they all need to be asking the same kind of financial and regulatory questions? No doubt, financial and compliance aspects are important, and boards must govern these. But why can’t a couple of directors focus on these aspects, while at least one director represents the interests of the customers who pay for the company’s products?
尽管在名义上，大家期望董事会代表各种利益相关方的利益，实际上，大多数董事会最终仅代表大的股东的利益。如果一个公司的董事会有好几位董事，难道需要向他们全员询问同样的财务和管理的问题吗？毫无疑问，财务的和承诺的内容非常重要，董事会需要对它们进行管理。为什么不能由几个董事来关注上述两个方面，同时，至少有一个董事来代表为公司产品付钱的顾客的利益呢？
Why the board must ask these questions
董事会为什么必须要问这些问题？
Whose job is quality? The answer is everybody’s, but it must begin at the top. The questions the board must ask and information the board must insist upon must start with the board; if the board doesn’t ask these questions, CEOs won’t ask these questions. And if CEOs don’t ask these questions, no one in the organization will ask these questions.
谁来为质量负责？答案是每个人都要为质量负责，不过质量管理必须始于最高层。董事会必须问文中提到的问题，董事会必须了解某些信息必须始于董事会。如果董事会不问这些问题，CEO们不会问这些问题。如果CEO们不问这些问题，组织里就不会有人问这些问题。
Although this may seem to be common sense, the sad truth is that many CEOs today have a short-term agenda because they are seldom questioned about institution building. This short-term focus could actually prove to be harmful to the interests of customers (and eventually to the business and shareholders) .
虽然这看起来是常识，不过一个不幸的事实是由于CEO们很少被问到关于机构建设的问题，今天许多CEO只有短期的规划。这种只关注短期业绩的行为可能最终被证明会伤害到顾客的利益（最终会伤害到公司的生意和股东的利益）。
The following are some indicators of organizations with progressive boards that focus on quality and customers:
以下是一些关注质量和客户的、先进的董事会的一些特征：
Quality is an agenda item at board meetings
质量是董事会议的一项议事日程；
Quality- and customer-related measures form part of the CEO’s performance evaluation
质量及顾客相关的措施是衡量CEO的表现的一个方面
The board encourages thinking and measuring performance from the customer’s perspective
董事会鼓励从客户的角度去思考和衡量绩效
There are distinct and dedicated teams focused on continuous improvement and quality for customers. These teams are empowered and encouraged to act as the “representative of the customer.”
公司设立独立的、专门的小组来代表客户关注持续改进和产品质量
Senior management is appointed and held accountable for quality and continuous improvement
公司指定高层管理者对质量和持续改进负责
Conclusion
结论
Board members, including independent directors, must start asking quality- and customer-related questions at board meetings, and ask them regularly and repeatedly. If boards don’t ask these questions, there will be no quality; without quality, there will be no customers; and without customers, there will be no business. Competitors whose boards do ask these questions will walk away with your customers and your business.
董事会成员，包括独立董事，必须开始在董事会议上问质量及顾客相关的问题，并且要定期的、重复的问。如果董事会不问这些问题，质量将无法保证；没有质量，公司将没有客户；没有客户，公司的生意也就完了。那些关注这些问题的竞争对手将抢走你的顾客和生意。
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
关于作者
Arun Hariharan
Arun Hariharan is a quality, knowledge management, and performance management practitioner. He has worked with business leaders of several large companies and helped them achieve substantial and sustained results through quality and customer focus. His is currently president of quality and knowledge management at Reliance Capital, India. Hariharan is a frequent speaker at quality and knowledge management events around the world. E-mail him at arun_hariharan@rediffmail.com.
Arun Hariharan是一位质量管理、知识管理及绩效管理的从业者。他和几个大公司的商务领导者合作，并通过关注质量和客户帮助他们实现巨大的、持续的成功。他目前是印度信实资金公司的质量和知识管理部的董事长。Hariharan经常在全世界就质量和知识管理活动发表演讲。他的邮箱是arun_hariharan@rediffmail.com。
来自http://www.qualitydigest.com
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下暴风雨 (威望:0) (上海 徐汇区) 电子制造 工程师 - ISO 13485:2005 ;ISO 9001...
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