what is uality? how does it work? what is quality? „ quality is a customer determination based...
TRANSCRIPT
UALITY AND INNOVATION
Any good for bad times?
What is uality?
How does it work?
WHAT IS QUALITY?WHAT IS QUALITY?
• „Quality is a customer determination based upon a customer's actual experience with a product or service, measured against his or her requirements, stated or unstated, conscious or merely sensed”.
(Armand Feigenbaum)
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION:
• How strong is the customers’ determination to buy your services? • What is the customers’ experience with your services? • What is the customers’ experience with your competitors’ services?• What are your customers’ requirements? • Are they stated and conscious or merely sensed? • What can you do to increase and reinforce your customers determination?’
• How can EAQUALS help you?
WHAT IS QUALITY?WHAT IS QUALITY?
“The quality of something can be determined by comparing a set of inherent characteristics with a set of requirements.
- If those inherent characteristics meet all requirements, high or excellent quality is achieved.
- If those characteristics do not meet all requirements, a low or poor level of quality is achieved.
Quality is, therefore, a question of degree. The quality of something depends on a set of inherent characteristics and a set of requirements, and how well the former complies with the latter.
According to this definition, quality is a relative concept.”
ISO 9000 Plain English Dictionary (Praxiom, Canada)
WHAT IS QUALITY? WHAT IS QUALITY?
”Quality is simply meeting the requirements of the ‘customer”. (John Oakland)
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION:
• Do we know what these requirements are?
• Do our customers know what their requirements are? If not, how shall we find out what they really want?
• Are we giving them enough quality, or maybe too little, or maybe too much?
• Maybe, with support from EAQUALS, we should tell them what their requirements should be?
QUALITY GOVERNANCEQUALITY GOVERNANCE
from: www.performance.utah.gov
INNOVATIONINNOVATION
What is innovation?Do we really need it?
Why do we need it?
WHAT IS INNOVATION? WHAT IS INNOVATION?
from: www.effectiveui.com
Innovation is the application of fresh ideas that enable a business to better compete in the future.
Such ideas can include any new or significantly improved products or services, operational processes or managerial processes.
INNOVATION GOVERNANCEINNOVATION GOVERNANCE
from: www.dcdr.dk
What is needed for meaningful and effective innovation?
TYPES OF INNOVATIONTYPES OF INNOVATION
There are three types (areas) of innovation
from: www.thinkforachange.com
QUALITY AND INNOVATION IN THE ECONOMIC CRISISQUALITY AND INNOVATION IN THE ECONOMIC CRISIS
Can we minimise the effects of the economic crisis with the help of quality control and innovation?
… 2010, 2011, 2012 …
EAQUALS CONFERENCE - BERLIN, APRIL 2010EAQUALS CONFERENCE - BERLIN, APRIL 2010
What are the effects of the financial
and economic crisis? Shrinking markets Rising unemployment People suddenly realise that they
have less money than they need Everybody starts to cut costs • Better education may not mean • more income• What else?
THE ECONOMIC CRISISTHE ECONOMIC CRISIS
How are language schools affected by the economic crisis?
Fewer people can afford extra education.
Those who can afford it are becoming more demanding.
More people economise and choose less expensive solutions (cheaper schools, new online multimedia technologies).
Students are demotivated more easily.
Students want more and more for less and less money.
YOUR SCHOOL’S MONEYYOUR SCHOOL’S MONEY
A typical budget of a language school comprises several main groups of costs.
What are they?
LANG
UAGE
SCHOO
L
EAQUALS
YOUR SCHOOL’S MONEY!YOUR SCHOOL’S MONEY!
COSTS OF TEACHING + ACADEMIC SUPERVISION + TEACHER TRAINING + TEACHERS’ RESOURCES, etc
COSTS OF SALES + STUDENTS’ RESOURCES+ OTHER SERVICES FOR STUDENTS, etc
COSTS OF PREMISES + EQUIPMENT + SAFETY + MAINTENANCE + REPAIRS + CLEANING, etc
COSTS OF ACCOUNTING AND ADMINISTRATION + OFFICE SUPPLIES + OFFICE EQUIPMENT, etc
COSTS OF INFORMATION + MARKETING + PROMOTION + WEBSITE MAINTENANCE, etc
YOUR SCHOOL’S MONEYYOUR SCHOOL’S MONEY
COSTS OF QUALITY CONTROL
INTERNAL
(by the management)
EXTERNAL
(by accreditation systems
such as EAQUALS)
SAVE YOUR SCHOOL’S MONEY!SAVE YOUR SCHOOL’S MONEY!
ALL OUR ADMIN STAFF AND TEACHERS
MUST LEARN TO SUPPORT
THE SCHOOL’S ECONOMY,
THUS ENSURING OUR
BUSINESS SAFETY
AND THEIR JOB SECURITY
SAVE YOUR SCHOOL’S MONEY!SAVE YOUR SCHOOL’S MONEY!
BY SAVING:
electricity (lights, heating, equipment)
• paper (photocopies) and all office supplies
• telephone costs (by checking e-mail regularly, staying in touch,
and responding promptly)
• What else?
SAVE YOUR SCHOOL’S MONEY!SAVE YOUR SCHOOL’S MONEY!
BY PREVENTING:
• student complaints (caused by poor performance or professional neglect)
• frequent equipment failures and repairs
(caused by ignorance and mishandling)
• frequent redecorating of classrooms (caused by inconsiderate use of blu tack)
• frequent repairs of classroom furniture (caused by sitting on tables, rocking on chairs, etc)
• What else?
SAVE YOUR SCHOOL’S MONEY!SAVE YOUR SCHOOL’S MONEY!
BY CONTRIBUTING
to PR efforts (by attending events, supporting good grapevine and the school’s positive public image)
to ensuring a proper level of continuation (by making students always satisfied, motivated and wanting more)
To what else?
SAVE YOUR SCHOOL’S MONEY!SAVE YOUR SCHOOL’S MONEY!
BY INNOVATION
There are always ways
to do things faster and
more effectively.
There are always ways
to do things in a less
expensive way.
Innovative and creative classes are the best way to motivate the students, keep them satisfied and wanting more.
SAVE YOUR SCHOOL’S MONEY!SAVE YOUR SCHOOL’S MONEY!
BY HIGH QUALITY PERFORMANCE
The better our teachers do their class preparation and documentation, the less time is needed for academic supervision and additional communication with students
The better our admin staff do their operations and keep their work records, the less time is needed for internal quality control
The better our staff is trained, the less time will be needed fo additional clarification
The clearer are our procedures, the less time is needed for staff training
The better is our daily communication system, the less time and money is spent on telephone conversations
THINGS TO REMEMBERTHINGS TO REMEMBER
PRACTICE SHOWS THAT AT A TIME OF STAGNATION AND CRISIS CONSTANT CONCERN FOR QUALITYAND INNOVATION AT EACHAND EVERY POST IS THE MOST EFFECTIVE WAY OF PREVENTING PROBLEMS AND PROTECTING ORGANISATIONS FROM FAILURE
THINGS TO REMEMBERTHINGS TO REMEMBER
Teachers (and other staff) who
are resistant to changes, to
in-service training, to constant
professional development and
to new technologies that save
time are gradually reducing their
market value as professionals.
THINGS TO REMEMBERTHINGS TO REMEMBER
If students know that their
school cares about their
problems they will stay
there for a long time.
Otherwise they will leave
and find caring teachers
and administrators at
another school.
THINGS TO REMEMBERTHINGS TO REMEMBER
If teachers do not report
problems to their DOSes,
and administrators to
the management, their
problems will grow
and eventually become
everyone’s problems
THINGS TO REMEMBERTHINGS TO REMEMBER
Schools that do not prepare
course documentation and student reports accurately and promptly will cause students’ (and parents’) disappointment leading to complaints and the overall impression will be poor – even if the teaching has been good.
THINGS TO REMEMBERTHINGS TO REMEMBER
• Teachers (and other staff members) who try
to offload their work on other colleagues
automatically make the team weaker.
• Every team is like a chain. And every chain
is as strong as its weakest link.
• Therefore, if you need to downsize and reduce
your staff, start with the weakest links and
make sure that the strongest links are with you.
THINGS TO REMEMBERTHINGS TO REMEMBER
Education is not a simple transaction.
It is a relationship which either develops
or dies.
• Education today is not about spending time
together. It is about keeping the promises made
to students and helping them to achieve results.
• Each course must be thoroughly prepared
because students always know when it is
not done and they are very sensitive about
their time and money being wasted.
THINGS TO REMEMBERTHINGS TO REMEMBER
A teacher who does not make
students feel they have learnt
something new in each class is
harming all colleagues and killing
their workplace.
Thus professional loyalty is one
of the benchmarks of quality and
the source os customer loyalty. from: www.crmtrends.com
THINGS TO REMEMBERTHINGS TO REMEMBER
High quality education must not ignore
innovation. Each class must be dynamic
and interesting. Dull classes kill students’
motivation and lead to drop-outs.
Lack of clearly planned creative activities,
regular homework (always checked) and
thorough (fair!) assessment kills the
students’ sense of progress and purpose.
CONCLUSIONS:CONCLUSIONS:
During hard times the biggest mistake one can make is to save money by reducing quality control.
Our quality control systems must remain strong and complete.
As responsible management, loyal to our best staff, we cannot tolerate any lack of responsibility resulting in poor performance.
Whenever there is a chance for improvement through innovation,
our schools must be ready to provide adequate support.
Smaller may mean easier to manage and improve.
EAQUALS CONFERENCE - BERLIN, APRIL 2010EAQUALS CONFERENCE - BERLIN, APRIL 2010
CONCLUSIONS
We must work harder on quality control because in times of crisis the market is more sensitive to consumers’ opinions.
When the budget for commercial advertising gets very tight our efforts to produce good word of mouth must be reinforced.
Bad news travels swiftly and spreads very fast on the Internet. In the
past dissatisfied students would inform no more than 10 to 12 friends about their bad experience. Now bad comments on popular Internet forums reach thousands of people within hours.
Crisis can be a good reason for creative reflection, rationalisation and innovation which will help us to build a solid basis for a better future.
CONCLUSIONSCONCLUSIONS
DOES QUALITY MEAN PERFECTION?Nobody is perfect. Perfection is the process of
demonstrating professionalism and competence while always striving for our best.
Perfection is a visible process. Students who see we are striving for perfection
will forgive us more, remain with us longer, come back after a break and also tell others.
EAQUALS CONFERENCE - BERLIN, APRIL 2010 EAQUALS CONFERENCE - BERLIN, APRIL 2010
Perfection is not the top of a mountain.
It is simply a hard pathway uphill.
