This was the Swiss Quality Day 2023

The traditional Swiss Quality Day is jointly organized by the SAQ and SQS. SHIFT Switzerland was also involved this year as the third event partner*. In his opening speech, its president Christian Häuselmann, together with SAQ managing director Prisca Zammaretti and Felix Müller, CEO of SQS, noted that sustainability and quality thinking are firmly rooted in the Swiss DNA. But he also regretted that personal responsibility in sustainability still worked too little and warned against more and more regulation through "hard laws".

"New Leadership" at the Swiss Quality Day 2023

But then it was back to the actual conference topic "The human being in focus". A hall survey revealed that "customer satisfaction" is the most important key term in connection with quality. And people are still largely solely responsible for this customer satisfaction. But the world has become more complex, as Prof. Dr. Lukas Scherer from the University of Applied Sciences of Eastern Switzerland noted in his presentation on "New Leadership": "Nothing is fixed anymore". Using facts proven in countless studies - for example, 77 percent of workers are dissatisfied with their leadership, "collegiality and fun" are top priorities for new employees, and salary is no longer the focus - he explained how difficult leadership has become today. "New leadership requires cooperation, inspiration, charisma, informal interaction with employees," and much more, Scherer said. Specifically, for leaders, it's about being a role model, taking employees seriously, valuing them and providing psychological security. Can AI help with this? Lukas Scherer showed an example of an employee assessment by ChatGPT. It read coherently, but the emotional, i.e. the human element was missing in it. Scherer's conclusion: "Even with New Leadership, the human being remains the old one." At best, AI can be a supplement to make processes more efficient.

What business can learn from sports

Prisca Zammaretti then talked via video with André Hoffmann, Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of Roche Holding AG, about linking quality with sustainability. Hoffmann regretted that in the past there had been too much focus on short-termism and quick prosperity. "We cannot go into the future with the systems we have had so far," Hoffmann said. "We need the courage to become more modest again," he concluded.

"Resilience in business and sports or: The dance around the corner flag" was the next program item. What elements can business learn from top-class sport? And where do both industries reach their limits? In a refreshing conversation, moderator Andrea Vetsch chatted with former top footballer and Kathrin Lehmann. Today, she works as an expert for Swiss television on the one hand, and is also CEO of her own company on the other, so she now also knows the "business side". She misses the "emotional exhaust", as she calls it, the dance around the corner flag when celebrating a goal - but also expressions of frustration in the dressing room. Rituals to celebrate success should therefore also be allowed a place in business life. She takes a critical view of the notion of flat hierarchies: "They're just flattened pyramids," and showed herself to be an advocate of the advantages that a hierarchical organization can still have. And what business can learn from (team) sports: Goals against - in other words, mistakes - can only be ironed out as a team.

Recipes for success of good employers

So what do the best employers do differently or better? This question was addressed by Heike Henfling (Schindler Aufzüge), Marianne Reisner-Schmid (Südostbahn) and Marc Holitscher (Microsoft Switzerland) in a panel discussion. These three personalities represented companies that had recently been recognized as Switzerland's best employers. In their speeches, the terms "fairness" and "appreciation" and authenticity on the part of managers were heard again and again, especially when it comes to introducing innovations. "If something doesn't come across as authentic, it doesn't work," said Marianne Reisner-Schmid, for example. And there also needs to be a "culture of debate," as Heike Henfling explained. Feedback, even negative, is welcome. Marc Holitscher added that all mistakes should be seen as learnings.

Learning from mistakes was also the topic of one of the three open sessions offered. There, Zehra Sirin (SizeConsens) used a self-experienced failure to show how this can be turned back into positive energy through a "fuck-up event". SHIFT Switzerland's Open Session showed how to use diversity to make project collaboration more sustainable. And promoting health in the workplace was the topic of Friendly Work Space's workshop.

Life Skills Taken to the Grain

The final highlight was provided by the duo Roman Tschäppeler and Mikael Krogerus. With a lot of humor and a twinkle in their eyes, they presented five life skills: Making decisions (here: those who take longer to make decisions make better decisions), collaboration skills, technological literacy (demonstrated by the so-called "hype cycle"), knowledge skills (those who appear with little knowledge but a lot of self-confidence end up on "Mount Stupid") and lifelong learning.

Quality, sustainability, new leadership, artificial intelligence: It was a colorful bouquet of topics that were highlighted on this day. They are a reflection of the complexity in which we move. In his closing remarks on the Swiss Quality Day 2023, SAQ President Ruedi Lustenberger said: "In all of this, it is important to ensure that people do not fall by the wayside.

The next Swiss Quality Day will take place on April 23, 2024. Further information: www.saq.ch

*Corrigendum: The Swiss Quality Day was organized by SAQ and SHIFT. SQS was there as a supporting partner, but not co-organizer.

Seghezzi Prize and new SAQ Presidium

Every two years, the Swiss Foundation for Research and Education Quality SFAQ awards the Seghezzi Prize for outstanding scientific work in the field of integrated quality management and sustainability. The prize, which is endowed with 10,000 Swiss francs, goes back to the founder, Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c., who passed away last year. Hans-Dieter Seghezzi, who died last year. This year's winner is Julian Senoner with his dissertation "Artificial Intelligence in Manufacturing - Augmenting Humans at Work". The jury particularly appreciated the practical relevance of machine learning in production processes demonstrated in this work. In it, the author shows examples of how machine learning can support quality management and the people responsible for it.

 

At the SAQ General Meeting, also held on May 11, 2023, President Ruedi Lustenberger announced his resignation. After ten years in office, he will pass on the baton to a co-presidency consisting of Ursula Grunder and Guido Graf. Prof. Dr. Lukas Scherer and Michael Vogt were also newly elected to the board.