2020-11-12

SCC reveals new Chairperson for ISO flagship committee on quality management

The Standards Council of Canada (SCC) is pleased to announce that Jeffrey Hunt, CEO of SHEA Global, is the new Chairperson of the ISO Technical Committee (TC) responsible for developing the ISO 9000 Quality Management series of standards. ISO/TC 176 Quality management and quality assurance is one of ISO’s high-profile committees.

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Descriptive Transcript

Start of video

[Animation appears with music and SCC logo at the centre. Images and text appear under logo: red arrow, Standards Council of Canada, tagline Open a world of possibilities and watermark of Government of Canada]

[SCC’s logo appears at the top left of screen]

[A woman and man appear side by side in separate video frames]

(Text under the woman’s video frame: Dr. Mkabi Walcott, Vice-President, Standards and International Relations, SCC)

(Text under the man’s video frame: Jeffrey Hunt, Chairperson ISO/TC 176 Quality management and assurance)

(Text disappears after 35 seconds)

[Woman speaks]

Hello everyone, I’m Dr. Mkabi Walcott, Vice President of Standards and International Relations at the Standards Council of Canada.

For 50 years, we at the SCC have been providing Canadians with a gateway to improve existing international standards and shape new ones.

Canada has played a key leadership role in the ISO committee responsible for developing quality management standards also known as the ISO 9000 series.

This committee has been one of ISO’s flagship groups for 40 years.

I’m delighted today to introduce the new international Chairperson who will be part of moving this legacy forward – Mr. Jeffrey Hunt.

Jeffrey, congratulations on your new appointment and thank you for joining me virtually today for a discussion.

[Man speaks]

Thanks very much, Mkabi. First of all, I’d like to say congratulations to the SCC on its 50th anniversary. That’s a really great accomplishment and milestone.

I’m also very excited to take the role of the Chairperson of ISO technical committee behind the quality management standards.

And given that it’s World Quality Day, happy World Quality Day to everyone!

[Woman speaks]

Thanks, Jeffrey. As part of your big debut as Chairperson, I’d like to ask some questions to get your perspective on the importance of quality management standards.

Could you tell us about your professional background to start, and what really inspired you to get involved with the standards community?

[Man speaks]

Sure, that’s a great question because I’ve been working in this quality space for about 30 years now and my first role in business was running a business that really had to develop, improve the quality of its products or we were going to go out of business. That was my first exposure to the benefits of quality management.

We were able to, over about a five-year period, to really change the nature of our organization to embrace quality standards both from product and process point of view and it resulted in a very successful change in the organization.

After that, I was so inspired by the whole concept that I started SHEA Global, a consulting firm. We’ve developed into a business that focuses on helping companies drive best practices within their organization – same as what I experienced originally around both product and processes. That’s expanded into a number of different areas, but focused on driving quality processes and operational excellence, and continuous improvement methodology within organizations.

When the Standards Council of Canada approached me about this position, I thought it was a really great way to expand my involvement within quality management and have a role in influencing how those are applied and developed in the future.

[Woman speaks]

Thanks, Jeffrey. I’m delighted to see that you bring many years of experience in using the quality management standards. Maybe from your perspective, how have you seen the quality management standards, or their importance, drive economic prosperity?

[Man speaks]

Yeah, there’s probably a number of ways I would explain that benefit, I think. In general quality standards drive a minimum expectation of what’s required both from a business point of view, or a customer, or from a service or governmental type organizations. That common baseline is a great way from which to start and it allows you to drive innovation within organizations and allows you to keep striving for what the best standards are.

The pursuit of that, those standards and innovation, is what really drives value for customers and that drives prosperity within businesses and within economies.

This year’s theme for World Quality Day is creating customer value. How do you see quality management standards create and improve customer value today?

I think the most important part of it is once you adopt a quality approach, a natural extension of that is a continuous improvement loop and focusing on quality, and continuously trying to improve that is only going to result in better quality for customers and customer outcomes.

Similarly, that applies again for services as well as government organizations that continually try to improve to be the best that it can be.

[Woman speaks]

We’ve seen for example the application of management system standards as it relates to production and more recently its application in the service sector. Do you see in the near future the application of quality management to issues that not only deal with production and services, but maybe to address some social issues?

[Man speaks]

There are actually some applications that are really interesting. One of them is the application of quality management standards toward electoral processes and that’s a common issue globally that people are often struggling with to make sure that those electoral processes are fair and that’s a really interesting benefit of what’s come out of an overall quality management process approach.

Similarly, there’s been discussions and work within the committee around the impact or potential use of quality management standards around policing. That’s been a very high-profile topic recently and globally, and I think that is another place that is non-product specific, but may have a very interesting application to improve all the things we were talking about earlier and apply that to either social, or kind of governmental, or policy-level areas.

[Woman speaks]

So Jeffrey, let’s get back to your new role as the chairperson of the quality management technical committee. With your appointment, what do you want to bring to the table in this new role?

[Man speaks]

I think in general my background, as I just explained, is largely in industry. I’ve had a lot of personal and business experience from what the benefits are of using standards in running our operations. I take a perspective that is very industry focused and from a user side of those standards.

There’s a great team of both academic and professional and audit capabilities on the technical committee. It’s been really inspiring to see the work that they’re doing as I’ve been introduced to them. So, I really look forward to working with that aspect of the technical committee.

My perspective is also very technologically oriented. We’re in a moment in time where technology plays such a huge role in our lives and in driving towards improvements in businesses for customers and users.

My focus will be on how we can integrate technology towards making standards better and also be able to audit and make sure those outcomes are more reliable for the end-users.

[Woman speaks]

Jeffrey, your perspective on what the next few years will hold for the committee and its world program?

[Man speaks]

There’s a lot on the table right now. I think most importantly we’re moving towards perhaps having a revision to the 9001 standard. If that does get approved, which I think it will. That’s going to be a lot of work for the committee and that will be where our main focus, I think that’s where most of our efforts will be dedicated.

I think there’s also a couple of things that have been highlighted with the work that we’re doing with the committee. Firstly, there is a lot of change going on in the world and the requirement of standards.

Emerging trends is going to be a very important part of the committee probably for a long time, but certainly in the next number of years moving forward. The committee has done a good job at identifying trends out there and we have processes in place to make sure we address that so I’m going to be really keen on working with the emerging trends aspect of the committee.

The other important part of any organization and certainly within an ISO context is the importance of maintaining the brand of ISO as well as the ISO 9000 standards. Again, our committee has done a lot of work in this space already and working with other technical committees is going to be a major part of my responsibilities as chair of the technical committee.

[Woman speaks]

Thanks, Jeffrey. This brings us to the end of this brief discussion today. Let me thank you again for joining me today and congratulations! Wish you all the best on this exciting journey.

[Man speaks]

Thanks very much Mkabi, it was great to be with you.

End of video
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The ISO 9000 series is the world’s most popular and widely used quality standards. Quality management standards are essential to creating and improving customer value. They empower companies and organizations to innovate and find ways to continuously improve products, services and processes.

More than one million companies and organizations in over 170 countries are certified to ISO 9001 Quality management systems standard. Canada holds the secretariat for the committee responsible for developing the ISO 9000 series and has played a key leadership role since the committee’s inception 40 years ago.

“The SCC is delighted that Jeffrey Hunt will be part of moving this Canadian legacy forward,” said Dr. Mkabi Walcott, Vice President, Standards & International Relations of SCC. “As a seasoned senior executive, he brings a wealth of leadership experience essential for finding solutions and building consensus with technical experts from 120 countries.”

Hunt is the Founder and CEO of SHEA Global, a private company that offers consulting services and software solutions. He expanded his start-up business into a global company with customers across 25 countries, and offices in Canada, US, UK, India and the Philippines. Hunt has more than 30 years of experience in quality management, process optimization and operational excellence.

About the Standards Council of Canada
Established in 1970 as a federal Crown corporation, the Standards Council of Canada (SCC) is Canada’s voice on standards and accreditation on the national and international stage. SCC works closely with a vast network of partners to promote the development of effective and efficient standards that protect the health, safety and well-being of Canadians while helping businesses prosper. As Canada’s leading accreditation organization, SCC creates market confidence at home and abroad by ensuring that conformity assessment bodies meet the highest national and international standards. SCC advances Canada’s interest on the international scene as a member of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) by connecting thousands of people to global networks and resources, opening a world of possibilities for Canadians and businesses.