Building Global Relationships: Insights from the IAQG Strategic Relationship Stream

In this episode of The Quality Horizon, Andy Maher, Quality Director for BAE Systems Group and lead of the IAQG Strategic Relationship Stream, discusses the importance of relationships in the aerospace industry.  

Maher outlines the structure of the IAQG's strategic relationship teams, emphasizes the need for proactive engagement to identify trends and challenges before they escalate, highlighting the value of in-person meetings for deeper understanding and collaboration. Touching on the necessity of preparation and empathy in discussions, as well as the importance of measuring success through customer feedback and responsiveness to market demands.  

Transcript

Susan Matson: [00:14 – 00:29] Hello everyone, and welcome to another episode of the IAQG Quality Horizon. This is Susan Matson, and today I am with Andy Maher, Quality Director for BAE Systems Group, and the lead of the IAQG Strategic Relationship Stream. Andy, welcome to the show. 

Andy Maher: [00:30 – 00:35] Thanks very much, and it's good to be back. I was on the very first one, so I'm looking forward to recording another one. 

Susan Matson: [00:36 – 01:17] This is right. Yes, you were, and that goes back a couple years post-COVID, so welcome back. And a lot has happened since then, but one of the things that I really like to talk about is relationships. Everything we do today in our business is a direct result of the relationships we make, right? So I thought it would be interesting to allow our listeners to get a glimpse of how the IAQG identifies maybe some specific relationships. and how they cultivate them globally. But before we get into the how and the plans for tomorrow, could you give our listeners a little introduction of the idea of the strategic relationship stream and how it all fits within the IAQG?

Andy Maher: [01:17 – 02:56] Yeah, certainly. Within the strategic relationships we've got a number of different parts so we've got a space team that's been long established, a defence team similarly long established and more recently an MRI team that hasn't had a leader for probably 12 or 18 months so we're re-establishing that team obviously very closely connected to 9110 from a certification point of view. And I'm really pleased to announce a newly formed team in terms of civil. So we've been talking a lot in the organization for a period of time around the ability to stand this up. We've now got a great leader in terms of Andrea Swartz from Airbus who has historically held a similar position and still does within the European sector. And what we're doing is we're elevating this up to an IAQG level. And so if you think about those teams in terms of the relationships and the ability to talk directly to customers, get that intimacy, and sort of shape the market, these teams play really nicely and sit alongside, effectively, the IAQG's product streams. So things like the certification scheme, including Oasis and all the insights that that provides, the SCMH, and AIM as products of the IAQG, the teams have a dual responsibility to point our customers and stakeholders in the direction of the part of the IAQG ecosystem, but also making sure that we are strengthening those products that we bring to market in order to meet those customer needs. 

Susan Matson: [02:57 – 03:09] So how do we identify those trends and stay ahead of those trends? How do we How do we get ourselves ingrained in those? I mean, you said you've got a great group together, but how are they really interacting? 

Andy Maher: [03:10 – 03:49] And so, you know, it comes back to the title a little bit in terms of relationships. So, you know, a lot of business is formed on the relationships and the, you know, the value that one party brings. And so individuals establishing a stakeholder map and a network, being able to talk and discuss openly, maybe a little bit absence from the heat of traditional delivery pressures that they may have in the day job, to get those real insights and then bring those back and feed them back into adjacent committees to make sure that the IAQG can continue to provide value and benefit to the broader stakeholder community. 

Susan Matson: [03:50 – 03:57] So it really is about maybe identifying some of those challenges before they become challenges, or is it a little bit of getting? 

Andy Maher: [03:57 – 04:45] Well, I think it's fantastic. So we talk an awful lot in terms of quality in general around being quite reactive in nature. So flipping onto the other foot and trying to predict and prevent what's happening before it actually materializes is significantly and critically important to the industry at large. There are macro trends and environments that are pushing inflationary and budgetary pressures. And so our ability to get in front and do things is obviously going to be cheaper and more efficient. And so absolutely, the team's working hard to piece together pieces of information to be able to simulate and therefore take action is paramount. 

Susan Matson: [04:47 – 05:05] That proactivity, being, stepping in front of it and being that voice, is there any, is there a specific, I mean, we're here together this week, we're in meetings. Have you seen a great example of how that's happened with your team? 

Andy Maher: [05:06 – 06:34] I think there's some really good examples in terms of information flow and exchange. So, you know, being in person together is often an expense for an organisation, but the ability to, you know, have not only the meeting conversations, but the extracurricular sidebar type conversations and get a real deeper understanding and seeking to understand is a good example. I think there's some specific examples. If I look at, you know, it always, It always strikes me in terms of the culture in some of the meetings, so we've got people from different geographies involved in the meetings, and some cultures listen more, really listen to understand, and so that listening to understand makes sure that they realize the requirements, can think about how they go and implement those requirements, and ultimately can implement things quicker by truly understanding at the start. I think another great example of where it comes together is space and defense have a joint segment in the middle of the day now. So space runs in the morning and defense runs in the afternoon, but there's a crossover in the middle of the day where instead of repeating the same information for both community is they do it once and therefore you know that's been really efficient with time. It's making sure that we get that cross-pollination of the information across the different groups which ultimately provides benefit for people to be able to make the correct decision. 

Susan Matson: [06:34 – 07:05] And I would think that from a global perspective, especially the example you just said, having everyone in the same conversation, having that perspective. I mean, one of the things that you started to talk about is that being able to really listen, different groups really listen. But from an IAQG perspective, we do have a global representation. It is an industry and there's different conversations happening. And there's different influences happening in the different regions. How are you addressing those? 

Andy Maher: [07:05 – 08:37] And I think, you know, if I break it down into a couple of different parts, I think that there is a great opportunity to work around the clock. from an IAQG perspective, so that people in one part of the organization, for example Asia, which might be daytime or nighttime in other regions, could work on something and then hand it over when the sun comes up in another region and that region can take over and carry on. So I think there's absolutely real opportunity to get that round the clock working. But your point of the question was really, so there's an efficiency piece in that method and logic. But the point of the question is, it's really good to get people together to be able to hear it all consistently at the same time. There's some great research out there around communication and how many conversations it takes in order to land an actual idea or progress to implementation. And it's often about hundreds of conversations that really sparks the innovation and the ability for people to say, actually, I can add value in this part. And therefore the diversity of that thought process, the diversity of the geographies and the companies in terms of the products that they produce, all comes together to produce something that the supply chain can consistently look at. 

Susan Matson: [08:40 – 09:03] You talked about getting together, but you're probably also using a variety of tools. And we even mentioned some of the tools that the IAQG have. So how does maybe SCMH, maybe AIM, things like our conversation, the podcast, or just virtual meetings in general, what are the tools that you're using to help get these engaged conversations happening? 

Andy Maher: [09:04 – 10:36] Yeah, so we do have a bit more work to do on Tilsets in terms of really honing in on that customer relationship management and the data that sits alongside it. So at the moment I'd say a lot of the heavy lifting is around people having those conversations and then informing other people of the conversations and then sort of creating from some of the parts, creating a greater whole. One of the things we're looking at is to, obviously from an IQG point of view, we've invested in teams and lots of functionality that provides the individuals to be able to collaborate across, so that's really useful. From a toolset point of view around the CRM piece, the Customer Relationship Management, we've still got a final piece of work to do just to down-select, but what we're looking for in that is the ability to you know, record the information and pull the intelligence out of all that information that gets recorded or inputted into the system and connect the dots. So, you know, we know even in our own organizations, but also in, you know, customer and operator organizations that that they are so busy that they work often in quite siloed organizations. So our ability to spot the trends across different domains and then take action to address the problem once as opposed to addressing it in every single domain or addressing it slightly differently in every single domain is a real advantage of spending time together. 

Susan Matson: [10:37 – 10:55] So taking a look at it from a company's point of view or maybe an association or another group's point of view, what kind of advice do you have that could spur a better conversation from the other side of the table? 

Andy Maher: [10:56 – 11:50] So I think there's two things, and again, you know, research and theory will predict some of this, but I always reflect on, you've got to be prepared. If you're not prepared, the outcome is often more uncertain. And so it does require a thought process around thinking around the end. So, you know, from Cotter's work and others, thinking about the end and thinking win-win you know so so really focusing on how do we how do we make sure that we're going in the direction and we know where the end point is and then and then coming back to understanding the different parties views on this and how can you empathize with those views and therefore come up with a solution that's going to actually address some of the things that are you know causing business industry etc concern 

Susan Matson: [11:51 – 12:17] Thank you. Thank you very much. This stream sounds like your team and the groups that you've pulled together sounds as if they are going to become more and more important and integral in the success of the IAQG and how those relationships happen. Is there something that you wish more people would understand about these or maybe appreciate 

Andy Maher: [12:19 – 13:31] One of the things, if you could say, what could you introduce to people in order to make it even more successful? And I've talked about thinking about the ending side, but this vivid foresight, so how do you actually think about what you want, what you need to do in order to get to that state, and then what are the likely actions that are either going to be up for debate, contentious, or need to be worked through. So I think that's really important. I think there's a piece around It's really difficult to change things if you're not inside the community that's having the discussions. So I'd encourage people that if they've got a burning issue or they see an opportunity to resolve maybe some of the challenges that the industry faces, how do they get their voice heard? How do they get into the right community? to be able to have those conversations and then we can plot a course through it. So I think those are really valuable in terms of, you know, people attending the sessions, being part of the community and plotting a destination as opposed to just being around, you know, along for the journey. 

Susan Matson: [13:31 – 13:32] First step is to get engaged.

Andy Maher: [13:33 – 14:00] Absolutely. There's loads of mechanisms in terms of the various different meetings, the various different standards we've got, the ability to interact and influence with a lot of our stakeholders. A lot of our organisations interact with stakeholders, maybe at different levels, but definitely that intent and will to be part of something is a fundamental foundational step. 

Susan Matson: [14:02 – 14:22] And I think one last question. We've jumped around. We've jumped all around in the conversations. But I did want to go back to one thing, and that's really about how do you measure, how do you think this team should measure improvement or tangible improvement or ultimately success? I mean, what does that look like? 

Andy Maher: [14:23 – 16:38] And again, I talked about the introduction of a tool set to collect some of the data and intelligence. I think that's a key important aspect. But the intelligence and the information we need to really look at is we measure voice of the customer in our internal organizations and net promoter scores or performance data, etc. We've got to get baseline data as to where our stakeholders are. And there's many different stakeholders in many organizations at many different levels. But we've got to think about the strategic direction setters and then how it translates at the working level and get some of that feedback and get it baselined. Once you get the baseline, you then create action plans and strategy to go around how do we address that and how do we improve. One thing's for sure, we're sat in the US now, the country can't agree its budget, and the output of that is people are on furlough. It takes a long time to get through airports for some people, et cetera. And there's just this macro environment of, yes, there are super cycles within defense and space, and to some degree within civil airspace. But the customer wants more value for money, They want to, you know, speed to market it. And so I think we've got to measure not only what the relationship's doing in terms of where the customers perceive us, but also are we actually improving, you know, a speed to market of our products and our agility to respond to those customer demands, responsiveness for example. And then really sort of If I was to use some of the things that I've been talking about in the podcast around vivid foresight, I can see some further horizontal consolidation in the not-for-profits that support the industry. And so we've got to start thinking around where do we play, where do we add value most, and what's core? and what's adjacency that would help the industry in a sort of a one-stop shop or a single source solution. And there's parts we can play in developing those solutions, so looking forward to the future. 

Susan Matson: [16:38 – 17:00] Sounds like there's a conversation later down the road so we can talk how the future comes to light. Andy, thank you. This is always a good conversation. And I really wish you and your team well and success. having those conversations and continuing to grow and make those connections. 

Andy Maher: [17:00 – 17:17] That's great. It's been a pleasure. And it always feels like it's too short, maybe too sweet. You know, maybe we need to be a bit more descriptive and in a bit more detail, but appreciate there's loads of channels that listeners can get in touch and discuss more if they're interested to do so. 

Susan Matson: [17:18 – 17:27] I definitely sounds like we have another conversation. So thank you. This is Susan Matson, and you have been listening to The Quality Horizon. Until next time, stay safe.