The role of quality leaders, and quality itself, is expanding. It includes thinking strategically, solving problems, implementing improvements, and driving change throughout the organization.

Quality leadership also requires managing challenges and anticipating what lies ahead regarding quality management best practices and global economic effects. Based on our analysis, here are our top three most critical challenges quality leaders must face in the near future.

1. Managing increasing regulatory pressures

Quality leaders and their organizations commonly deal with heavy regulations in manufacturing and other competitive industries. This is particularly relevant in your role as the compliance specialist, because you must stay updated on applicable industry regulations and standards, understand how they affect various aspects of your business, and translate these requirements into actionable processes.

For example, the Code of Federal Regulations in the U.S. covers industries ranging from healthcare, food and drugs, transportation, labor and employment, energy, financial services, and technology. Every year, there are thousands of new or updated regulations.

In Europe, the European Commission has become the first in the world to set global standards for artificial intelligence (AI) regulations. And we’ll see more of these kinds of regulations emerge.

Effectively navigating the current and expanding regulatory framework is a significant challenge; we at CANEA foresee that regulations will only increase. With the burden of managing and complying with regulations, migrating into continuous improvement and taking advantage of digitalization and innovation becomes an even greater challenge.

2. Protecting know-how and securing information

Organizations and customers are more mobile, working remotely or in the office, and this affects how we share, store, and secure information. Recent news about security breaches at all levels of society affects infrastructure, supply chains, and the global economy. In CANEA’s recent Management System Barometer, our study shows that an increasingly mobile and global workforce places huge security requirements on organizations, quality leaders, and management systems. Our study also indicates a growing concern that we humans and our errors are the weak link. Also, a recent report from the World Economic Forum, “Global Cybersecurity Outlook 2024,” confirms that cyberskills and talent shortages continue to widen at an alarming rate.

Training to implement international standards, such as ISO 27001, helps organizations become risk-aware and proactively identify and address weaknesses. Organizations must also have their own tools and plans for risk management and cyber resilience.

In your role as a strategic thinker, you must monitor external threats and quickly adapt and manage these growing risks. Skills such as strategic planning and allocating resources with the necessary skills come into play.

3. Plugging the knowledge drain and leveraging innovation

Other consequences of a changing workforce are the aging population and job churn. Quality leaders work proactively to ensure the continuity of quality for the organization and processes to protect valuable knowledge when a key person leaves the company. Reducing and managing dependency on key staff, quicker onboarding of new employees, and implementing value-driven and cross-functional roles by reducing silos are some of the issues you must manage on an organizational level.

Embracing digital transformation and leveraging technologies such as artificial intelligence or the internet of things (IoT) can complement or replace knowledge gaps. As a change agent, you can motivate your colleagues to implement methods such as the Prosci ADKAR model (awareness, desire, knowledge, ability, reinforcement) or Kotter’s 8-step change model to guide the implementation of quality improvements.

Overall, quality leaders’ evolving roles and challenges can be opportunities. Reimagining and reinventing traditional quality management systems (QMS) is necessary to meet the demands of a rapidly changing world. With forward-thinking quality leadership, you can shape a future where quality isn’t just a goal but an essential driver for your company.

Published by CANEA.