Sometimes dealing with realities – economic uncertainty, ever-increasing competition, political instability – compels a company leader to take a chance.
As part of its push to go global, under Captain Weis leadership COSCO has established an integrated quality, environmental and safety management system. In July this year, the company became the first Chinese company to be awarded these three certifications. Captain Wei is convinced the certificates, awarded by the China Classification Society and DNV, will help protect the safety of people and the environment and, furthermore, give the company more business in the international market.
Indeed, managing a business and steering it through both good times and bad, calls for entrepreneurial enterprise and good business practices. The latter are often embodied in systems at various levels in the organisation, according to Roger Howe, director of operations, DNV Certification.
Since the late 1970s businesses have invested in Quality Management Systems to manage product quality. More recently the investment has been in Environmental Management Systems to give responsible consideration to both internal and external aspects and impacts. And now the corporate world has started to seriously consider the need for systems to manage companies social responsibilities.
Independently, each of these systems brings benefits. However, a business is not managed in discrete packages. Businesses are continuums in which all decisions and actions have consequences across that continuum.
For this reason the need for integrated control mechanisms is essential. These mechanisms are offered by a management systems approach, bringing together all business control requirements. Combining the discrete management systems, which were largely developed in the last quarter of the 20th century, is one of the prime challenges facing industry today.
Howe maintains that business will renew, regenerate and move forward. Management systems will never lead this entrepreneurial drive, but they must follow very closely and achieve integration both within the disciplines and within the business concept.
Typical examples of the management services DNV is currently providing to its clients across the industrial spectrum are included in this latest issue of DNV Forum. It is clearly evident that, in the modern world of industrial commerce, business survival depends on many factors, not least good business practices and entrepreneurial enterprise.