60 Seconds with Nick Wright

What is your role?

I have recently been appointed as the Managing Director for NQA with a remit over the UK, India and EMEA. I have been with NQA for a long time, starting my career 9 years ago in a graduate strategy development role. I have been in a number of roles within NQA which now aid me within the position I am in today. These include project management, commercial development, operational and business leadership roles.

Most memorable moment at work?

Throughout my time at NQA I have been lucky enough to be able to travel around the world. I am often taking a trips across Europe and India to spend time with our teams overseas. One of my most memorable moments from working here was flying in a tiny propeller aircraft through a monsoon when travelling between Bangalore and Chennai. I love flying but this was by far the absolute scariest, white-knuckle ride of my life.

Favourite things about working for NQA?

I really enjoy that NQA is full of great people that really care about our business and have a passion to help our customers genuinely improve themselves. Our ethos is to create and nurture an environment where each individual can have a positive impact and see their contributions come to fruition.

Top tip for people looking at certification?

My advice to those looking at gaining certification would be to really understand the business goals they are looking to achieve from implementing a management system and gaining certification. Once this is clearly understood, this needs to form an integral part of the project to implement a system. Engaging with a certification body at the beginning of project and explaining your business goals is important, they can help you understand the process and integrate your objectives.

Whilst the certification process is impartial, having an understanding of what a client is looking to achieve helps the auditor focus their assessment and ensure that the client gets more out of the experience than just the certificate itself.

With this in mind, make sure that the certification body you choose to partner with has auditors with the right knowledge and expertise for your industry so that they can provide you with the best possible service. Not all certification bodies and auditors are equal in expertise and resources to support your business.

Where do you see NQA going?

NQA has moved forward significantly in the last 5 years, we have invested heavily our people and system. With the complexity of global business ever increasing, it is important that we do not lose focus on what makes NQA a great company do business with. Putting the customer and the supply chain at the heart of what we do, making the certification journey straight-forward and supporting our clients to improve their businesses.

NQA must continually adapt to make sure its services remains relevant and provide genuine value to our clients and the supply chain. There is no doubt the future will involve providing further expertise and support to clients beyond the audit itself; delivering a synthesis of advanced auditor knowledge, data driven insight and working collaboratively with clients and the broader supply chain. Bringing components together which will enable clients to improve what they do in a systematic and informed way.