ISO Insights: Ways To Improve Your Business
Sep 14, 2026 · 20 min · 12 segments
In this episode of ISO Insights, we look at how OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) can work alongside ISO 9001 to create clearer priorities, stronger alignment and better performance. We explore how…
They were a cultural foundation laid down by Andy Grove, one of Ill-Intel's founders and later its CEO.
Grove believed that execution was more important than knowledge.
Knowing things was useless unless it translated into action.
And what do OKRs actually look like? An objective is your what? The big, ambitious thing you're trying to achieve.
The key results are your how.
They define how you know you're making progress with measurable indicators that say, "Yes, we did this," or "No, we didn't." For example, Intel's objective might have been be number one in the mid-range computer chip market.
A corresponding key result could be win ten product designs using our eight oh-- eight five processor.
Simple, measurable, public, focused.
Now pause that story for a moment and compare it to what ISO nine thousand and one tells us.
Clause six point two requires that organizations establish quality objectives at relevant functions and levels, and that those objectives should be measurable, consistent with the quality policy, and monitored.
It requires that organizations plan how they will achieve those objectives, who's responsible, what resources are needed, when it will be done, and how progress will be evaluated.
This isn't about setting vague aspirations.
It's about defining success and putting structure behind it.
They were a cultural foundation laid down by Andy Grove, one of Ill-Intel's founders and later its CEO.
Grove believed that execution was more important than knowledge.
Knowing things was useless unless it translated into action.
And what do OKRs actually look like? An objective is your what? The big, ambitious thing you're trying to achieve.
The key results are your how.
They define how you know you're making progress with measurable indicators that say, "Yes, we did this," or "No, we didn't." For example, Intel's objective might have been be number one in the mid-range computer chip market.
A corresponding key result could be win ten product designs using our eight oh-- eight five processor.
Simple, measurable, public, focused.
Now pause that story for a moment and compare it to what ISO nine thousand and one tells us.
Clause six point two requires that organizations establish quality objectives at relevant functions and levels, and that those objectives should be measurable, consistent with the quality policy, and monitored.
It requires that organizations plan how they will achieve those objectives, who's responsible, what resources are needed, when it will be done, and how progress will be evaluated.
This isn't about setting vague aspirations.
It's about defining success and putting structure behind it.
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