CzechTrade becomes first Czech governmental agency to receive quality management certificate
Just a few days ago, the Czech government's trade promotion agency, CzechTrade, became the third such agency in Europe to receive the ISO 9001:2000 certificate in what can be seen as a pioneering project of introducing a quality management system to the state sector.
Although many Czech companies recognise the need for quality management certification, the Czech Republic is still far behind the West. But even there introducing quality management to the state administration is a really novel approach.
The Czech government's trade promotion agency, CzechTrade, has recently introduced a quality management system itself, become the third national pro-export organisation in Europe to receive the quality management certificate ISO 9001:2000.
I asked the director of CzechTrade, Martin Tlapa, whether the decision to implement a quality management system at the agency was based on their own decision, pressure from the supervising ministry or incited by the clients:
"It was mainly our own decision which was a result of a descussion how to improve the competitiveness of CzechTrade within the EU, because our main task, when the Czech Republic joins the EU, will be to work the same way as comparable agencies in other EU countries. That's why we decided to go this way, to standardise our services, to be very clear and transparent for our clients, that we are really focusing on the processes in CzechTrade, that we bring value to our clients."
Quality management certification is not very common among Czech companies, do you want to show the way to exporters, to highlight the importance of certification?
"I think it is absolutely necessary for Czech manufacturers and exporters to have some kind of certificates because this is the basic way to convince the clients that everything, all the processes in the organisation, is going in the right way and that they are able to keep their promises. This is very important in business and many Czech companies already have the certificate. What is new is that a public service and the public sector should also go this way. We are following the example from the United States where the balanced scorecard of the quality management system was implemented many years ago and I think this is the way to push the public service to have the clients on mind in the first place and this is the way the Czech public service should go."
Would you say then that this marks a shift from a bureaucratic to a managerial concept of state administration?
"Yes, this is exactly the point. I think that the public service generally should realise that it is paid by the taxpayers and that it is a service to them, that it is not about power but about the clients. When everybody thinks this way, I think the business environment in the Czech Republic will improve significantly and quite soon."
Do you know about any other quality management certification projects in the Czech state administration?
"CzechTrade is the third governmental trade promotion agency in Europe; there are two others in the EU who received the certificate. There are some other institutions under the Ministry for Regional Development that have such certificates, there are some municipalities which are under quality management control, but what is quite new is that this is a governmental agency. In this respect CzechTrade is a leader in the Czech Republic."
So, is CzechTrade a completely new agency now?
"It is not completely new. We have gone this way top show the clients that we are thinking about them, that we promise to keep improving our services all the time and bring them new value."
