Quality management as a strategic cultural act for African organizational sovereignty
via Lefaso.net9 min read
Dr. Bougouma Edith Christiane, a certified expert in quality, health, and HSE management, and a strategist in quality culture and organizational transformation, proposes that true African sovereignty can be achieved through structuring, aligning, and transforming organizations. Drawing inspiration from traditional African textiles like Faso Dan Fani and Koko Dunda, she argues that quality should be viewed not merely as a control tool, but as a strategic culture that enhances performance, coherence, and autonomy within African organizations. Dr. Christiane highlights that quality often operates in the background, essential yet unrecognized in strategies. She uses the metaphor of weaving to illustrate how quality acts as the "invisible threads" that ensure the coherence and strength of an organization. By adopting a quality-focused language in business, organizations can identify losses, accurately measure risks, and establish coherence as a guiding principle. This approach allows Africa to develop its own demanding, creative, and sovereign performance models, rather than simply replicating imported ones. The article presents examples where quality managers' warnings about storage defects in an agri-food company and raw material conservation in a pharmaceutical industry were initially ignored, leading to significant financial losses and risks to patient safety. These cases demonstrate that quality is a function of vision, anticipation, and strategic protection, not just control
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