Quality leaders gathered at the Veeva Executive Summit last week to define a new mandate: transforming Quality from a necessary compliance function into a core driver of business value.
The workshops and panel discussions were candid, reflecting a shared struggle that Seán Leighton, SVP of Food Safety, Quality, and Regulatory Affairs at Cargill, articulated best: "When I walk down the halls on the executive floor, inevitably somebody will stick their head out the door and be like, ‘Psst, Seán, what's wrong?’ And I think that’s one reason why we as quality leaders tend to not connect naturally with our peers and the C-suite. Because we're the messengers when there's something wrong.”
The consensus among executives was clear that this perception must change. The Summit provided a definitive roadmap for this shift, focusing on two non-negotiable pillars for modern Quality leadership.
Pillar 1: Elevating Quality from Gatekeeper to Value Driver
The most profound shift discussed at the Summit was the functional elevation of quality. No longer measured solely by audit results, quality is transforming from the necessary gatekeeper to a strategic value driver. This elevation is achieved by speaking the language of business and proving tangible contributions to growth.
As Gilberto Quintero, Global Chief Quality Officer at Kimberly-Clark, noted, “The best lever is to show the value that we bring to the company by improving key quality indicators, like reducing consumer complaints, or reducing the cost of poor quality manufacturing. If you bring all those value additions they give you bargaining power."
This value proposition is the ultimate brand responsibility. Leighton agreed, framing it as the ultimate brand promise: “A good brand is a promise. A great brand is a promise kept. We're the ones that keep the promises that our sales team and our commercial teams make.”
This focus on value allows the quality function to set the strategic direction for the entire organization, moving it out of the transactional weeds. Pawel Rudzinski, SVP of Global Quality at Reckitt, offered a bold vision for this future role: “This is going to happen... quality is going to be really setting the direction, being the final judge, the coach, the influencer.” By setting strategic direction and speaking the language of value, quality generates the trust dividend: strengthening consumer confidence, accelerating innovation, and enabling growth.
Pillar 2: Laying the Groundwork for AI and Reflexive Quality
The Summit discussions reinforced that achieving predictive quality and AI-driven efficiency is difficult when data remains fragmented. True progress comes after creating a single, trusted source of truth that connects teams and systems.
“Data is boundaryless,” reflected Derek Henderson, VP of Product Quality Management at Kenvue. “We need data to make quality successful, and quality data is needed to make other parts of the company successful. How do we unify our data across the company so we can see that digital thread that can enable a great consumer experience?”
This data unification contributes cultural transformation, shifting from conscious procedure to instinct. Adora Parker Johnson, VP of Regulatory Compliance and Quality at Dollar Tree Stores, framed this challenge: “How do we make go from process to reflex? How do we make compliance and quality the gut reflex in all of our embedded areas?”
This shift is enabled by digital tools that provide both necessary structure and speed. Johnson clarified the modern view of compliance: “I think of compliance as the guardrails. This is a safe space where I can operate and not get in trouble. Agility is when do I do it and how quickly can I do it?”
By automating tactical work and establishing this unified data layer, the quality function gains the authority and space to focus on strategic governance. This is where the right technology partner is critical. Veeva’s unified quality platform was cited by leaders for providing the clean, connected data layer that enables predictive quality and ensures the quality function can confidently take on its future role as strategic coach and judge.
From Insight to Action: Start Your Strategic Quality Journey
The path to turning Quality into a Strategic Value Driver runs directly through two priorities: disciplined, enterprise-wide influence (speaking the language of value) and digital unification (preparing the data for AI).
But how do you start a transformation of this magnitude?
“If you are waiting to have perfection to start, you're never going to start,” advised Berenice Vettore, Global Chief Quality Officer at the Estée Lauder Companies. “You start and you are going to interact and learn when you are done. That continuous improvement is super critical."
Are you ready to move beyond being the messenger of bad news and begin? I encourage you to request a complimentary strategic quality assessment with a Veeva expert. We can help you map the journey to reposition quality as a competitive advantage in your organization.
