The start of Quality Assurance:

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By the late 1980s I had some useful knowledge of Quality Management Systems and the Government was beginning to urge UK manufacturers to prepare for the European Economic Community in 1992. There were various incentive schemes for businesses to improve their performance in readiness to compete within the EEC across Europe. Quality Assurance was seen as an essential to be competitive and grants became available. We were in just the right place at the right time and were among the first to exploit the opportunity. The first registered assessing body for BS5750 (1987) was Lloyds Register of Quality Assurance, ahead of the British Standards Institution. We submitted out first client to them in 1988. The assessor was no more experienced than we were so we were definitely in on the ground floor. The result was that while other consultancy firms were scrambling to qualify their firms and their staff to provide grant aided consultancy we were ahead of them. Similarly when it came to the assessments, we were as experienced as most of the people who came to assess our clients. We never had a failure. Our reputation grew and fortunately we were able to build a steady business on a solid foundation. We were not big, but we were profitable. Within a few years I'd worked for a very wide range of industries and one of the sure ways to close a deal and land the contract was to be able to talk to the prospective client as though we knew his industry well. We could usually refer him to someone in the same industry who had already engaged us. The result was we had a steady flow of assignments that continued for years.