Mohamed Zairi

Professor Mohamed Zairi BSc MSc (Aston) PhD (CNAA) is a British academic and expert in Total Quality Management (TQM).

He is Professor of Best Practice Management and Executive Chairman of the European Centre for Best Practice Management in Keighley, UK. He previously held the title Professor at the University of Bradford for nearly 13 years. He was appointed to the Sabic Chair in Best Practice Management in 1995, which he held until 2004. He was subsequently selected for the prestigious Juran Chair, which is funded by the Government of Dubai in the form of a Consortium. He currently holds the position as Emeritus Professor at University of Bradford. Professor Zairi is the initiator of the concept of Excellence Tetralogy

Professor Zairi is recognized as one of the main pioneers in the fields of benchmarking and best practice management. He is accepted globally as a leading researcher in this field and an authority on the application of these powerful concepts. He represents a very unusual breed of academics who have, from an early stage, demonstrated how knowledge can be put to work. He has helped bridge the gap between academic thinking and the application of practical solutions to problems by translating novel ideas and innovative concepts into useful and purposeful guidelines and blue prints that can be used by mangers in all sectors of industry and commerce.

Professor Zairi has influenced Management Thinking both in the UK, Europe and the rest of the Globe. Firstly through his relentless efforts to research problem areas and disseminate knowledge and secondly through his prolific contribution to academic thinking through his presence at conferences and his publications in internationally refereed journals. He has to his name, over 300 publications, including 17 books in the fields of quality and related topics. He has also actively participated in well over 250 conferences nationally and internationally. Since the mid 1980s Professor Zairi has been active in supporting organizations in the UK adopt Best Practice Management thinking. He has worked very closely with hundreds of organizations covering a wide spectrum of public and private sector interests. His work in the 1980s in the field of Advanced Manufacturing Technology helped pave the way for SMEs in particular to contemplate the introduction of sophisticated technological systems without having to encounter the types of difficulties and problems faced by large organizations. The demonstration of how Quality and Best Practice thinking can be applied in the public sector in Health Care for instance, Health & Safety and Schools was a unique contribution.

The development of the European Benchmarking Best Practice Award was a revolutionary contribution that has encouraged the sharing and transfer of best practices in both the UK and Europe and it later became a blueprint for similar schemes developed in other parts of the world. Professor Zairi’s recent contributions in the setting up of the Excellence in Yorkshire Award, the SME Knowledge Network and most recently the Excellence in Schools Initiative is a true demonstration of his commitment to the dissemination of Best Practice Management Thinking and his desire to see progress in performance improvement in all sectors of the British Economy. Internationally, Professor Zairi has been extremely active in promoting British‐led Research and Application Methods and the adoption of Management Thinking developed in the UK is pervasive and as widely applied as possible. These significant efforts have brought back a lot of benefits of both a tangible and intangible nature.

Being a pioneer by helping start the Benchmarking and Best Practice Movement in the UK since the mid‐1980s:

• By working very actively in the area of Advanced Manufacturing Technology (AMT) and in support of the scheme which the government of the time launched in 1985/86.
• Played a unique contribution by studying the reasons for the slow uptake of the AMT Technological Innovation.
• Created an industrial network for the exchange of Best Practices, and developed methods and guidelines useful to companies when considering the introduction of complex technologically based innovations.
• The work was carried out at the West Midlands Regional Management Centre (Staffordshire Polytechnic) from 1986‐ 1989
• The work done in the UK became a benchmark and was used in countries such as Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Hong Kong and India.
• In 1991 he published a Book on The Management of Advanced Manufacturing Technology which became a key reference in many libraries.
• In the late 1980s and early 1990s in support of the Enterprise Initiative Scheme, he became involved in the area of Innovation Management.
• was the first academic professional to be sponsored by Unilever PLC in the area of Quality and Innovation Management in Europe and his work has impacted on the whole Unilever Group and hundreds of organisations covering the Fast Moving Consumer Goods sector, Engineering, Aerospace, Automobile, Communications and computer industry;
• He has conducted extensive research on Best Practice Innovation Management on a global basis;
• He has published several reports on UK. Practices and has developed blue prints and guidelines which were used by many organisations covering the aforementioned fields;
• He became interested in Quality Function Deployment (QFD) a powerful tool for the effective management of innovation which was developed in Japan and led a project sponsored by the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) in 1993 on the use of QFD in Europe. This was to become the first ever project done in this important area and the report was widely distributed throughout Europe;
• He held the Unilever Sponsorship from 1990 to 1995 at the University of Bradford, School of Management.
• In the early 1990s Professor Zairi was the first British academic professional to help pioneer and promote the use of benchmarking in the UK;
• He chaired and gave hundreds of presentations and keynote addresses for senior management teams working in the public and private sectors;
• He has written the first book on benchmarking in 1992.
• He trained thousands of managers in both the public and private sector in the use of benchmarking tools.
• He helped set up the European Best Practice Benchmarking Award in 1994–95 for which he was appointed as Chairman.
• He helped set up the first International Journal of Benchmarking in the World in 1994, became its European editor and then immediately the chief editor until 2000. He is currently its Director of Editing.

The benchmarking journal has become a key reference for practitioners and academics alike and is internationally adopted by most libraries.

• In 1995 Professor Zairi was rewarded by being appointed to the First Chair in Best Practice Management in the World, a prestigious sponsorship by SABIC (Saudi Basic Industries Corporation).

Some of the most significantly important work carried out by Professor Zairi in the field of Best Practice Management include:

• The development of a benchmarking tool for World Class Marketing (WCM). This was sponsored by the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) and has served the purpose since for assessing thousands of organisations in the UK and the transfer of best practices;
• Conducting the first piece of research in Europe on the link between Quality Management Practices and Business Results. This study has made a significant contribution not only in proving that Quality Management can be demonstrated to produce positive outcomes to organizations that adhere to its principles but also in assisting organisations make the case for implementing this powerful philosophy. This study became a key reference internationally and is often quoted in various publications;
• Carrying out the first national pilot on the use of quality management in Primary Care General Practices and proving its relevance and applicability;
• Conducting a major piece of research sponsored by The Health & Safety Executive (HSE) on Performance Management in Health & Safety and producing a blueprint for organizations both in the public and private sector to adopt;
• Developed an audit tool for the assessment of organizational effectiveness in the NHS and conducted a national study to demonstrate its usefulness and applicability;
• Conducted a major study on Best Practice Application and The Transfer of Knowledge,which involved 21 countries and the report and its findings were disseminated internationally;
• Recently conducted a major study on Best Practice in Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Systems Implementation which culminated in the development of a unique methodology which is adopted by several organizations;
• Conducted the first piece of research on organizational values and their inculcation which involved contributions from 13 different countries and is now serving as a useful benchmark;