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Challenges and Benefits of Operating to Quality Standards (CIMR debates in Public Policy)

When: —
Venue: Online

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Speakers:

  • Jacob Mogensen (Food and Bio Cluster, Denmark)
  • Jon Murthy (LGC ASSURE)
  • Marion Frenz (Birkbeck)
  • Martí Casadesús (Universitat de Girona)

Discussant: Ray Lambert (Birkbeck)

Chair: Helen Lawton Smith (Birkbeck)

Synopsis:

There is only limited empirical evidence into the impacts – positive and negative - of compliance with regulations and certification to quality standards on different types of businesses. With this debate in public policy, we seek to shed light on some of the key benefits and challenges for business to operate to quality standards. We discuss the impact that food safety and quality standards have in business performance and innovation.

We showcase the experience of small start-ups in the food sector and the experience of standard owner BRCGS. We link this with a critical debate on the role of management standards in general, namely: ISO 9001, ISO 14001, etc., and the risks, unfounded or not, associated with them.

Format: This is an hour-long event. Our panel of four speakers will give their perspectives on the issues followed by an open discussion. The event is taking place online and full joining instructions will be sent to you by email at least 24 hours before the event.

Bios:

Jacob Mogensen is Head of Incubation, Entrepreneurship and investment in Food & Bio Cluster Denmark. Jacob has more than 13 years of experience facilitating and assisting startups and sme’s developing innovative products and concepts. Through hands on experience from the development of technologies, products and companies within the food and bioresource industries Jacob has often dealt with both the positive and negative sides of having standards, regulations and laws. Especially over the last couple of years with a strong focus on sustainable and climate friendly solutions, the existing framework conditions have been challenged.

Jon Murthy has worked in the standards and supply chain assurance sector for the last 20 years. His work has focused on communicating the value of globally recognised standards in order to promote their uptake in the food and consumer products sector. Jon currently works for LGC ASSURE, a newly established brand that offers a connected suite of solutions that intelligently analyse the safety, quality and authenticity of goods and services, alongside evolving value drivers such as health, environmental, human welfare and ethical impact.  Prior to that, Jon worked for BRGCS, UKAS, and the BBC. 

Marion Frenz is Reader in Management at Birkbeck and joint-Deputy Director of the Centre for Innovation Management Research. Marion's research looks at business innovation, in particular the role of international linkages in innovation. She also examined firms’ innovation activities during times of economic downturns. With Dr Ray Lambert, she developed typologies of innovation modes or routines, including non-technological modes, and looked at the role of accreditation and standards in business performance. Recently Ray and Marion completed a consultancy project for BRCGS on the role of certification to BRCGS food safety standards on food manufacturing sites.

Martí Casadesús Fa is a Professor in the Department of Business Management and Product Development at the University of Girona. He studied Industrial Engineering (UPC) and holds a Doctorate in Industrial engineering (UdG). He is currently co-director of the research group GREP (Research Group in Product, Process, and Production) at UdG, and member of the consolidated research group QISE (Quality Innovation in Service Excellence) at UIC. Both of these groups are devoted, among others, to the analysis and design of quality management systems. Hence, his research is focused on quality management, and he has several publications in research journals such as: Total Quality Management, International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, The TQM Magazine, International Journal of Operations & Management, etc. He has also been one of the Spanish experts on the Technical Committee 176 of ISO (International Organization for Standardization), which is dedicated to the creation of new management standards.

He has been vice-dean at the Polytechnic School and vice-rector for Planning & Quality at the University of Girona. He was the director of AQU Catalunya (2013 to 2021) and Secretariat of INQAAHE's Board (International Network for Quality Assurance Agencies in Higher Education).

Ray Lambert had a long career as a civil service economist, working in several different government departments.  He worked for the last 18 years on aspects of the economics of innovation and innovation policy, with special reference to metrics, indicators and modelling of the innovation system. He managed the UK innovation survey, a large and complex business survey and undertook or guided extensive statistical analysis of the results.  A central focus was the measurement and impacts of innovation with particular reference to some of the institutions and knowledge sources that form parts of the UK innovation system, such as Standards and Accreditation, the National Measurement System, the Design Council and the research base. 

Since leaving the Civil Service he has worked on consultancy projects, including assessing the economic value added of Accreditation to standards, for the UK Accreditation Service, studies on design and its role in the economy, including Service Design, Design led innovation and a project for the OECD to improve the measurement of design in innovation. Other work includes:

  • a project for the European standards body CEN/CENELEC on the interface between standardization and the research and innovation system;
  • research for the British Standards Institution on the interface between standards and IPRs.
  • an evaluation of the Design Councils ‘Design in the Public Sector’ programme.
  • a study on the impact of certification to BRCGS food standards on food companies’ business performance.

Many of these projects have been collaborations with academic economists, especially Marion Frenz.

Helen Lawton Smith is Professor of Entrepreneurship and Director of the Centre for Innovation Management Research, Birkbeck, University of London. Her research focuses on geographies of innovation. Her most recent research concerns uneven geographies of support for disabled and ethnically diverse entrepreneurs.

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