Mexican Football Team

First International Club to gain ISO 9001:2000 certification

If you were to list the types of companies that seek ISO 9001:2000 certification, football teams would come a long way down the list.  This is not the case for the first division team Monarcas Morelia, who are the first in the world to achieve ISO 9001:2000 certification.  This is primarily due to their farsighted owner, Grupo Salinasm who has a background in TV and the media.  After aquiring the team, he quickly realised that all companies, including his football team should develop and maintain a Quality Management System (QMS) in order to make the necessary improvements for sustained success at the top of the league.  He also felt that gaining certification to ISO 9001:2000 would add greater value and provide third party validation of his QMS. 

The team have gone from being bottom of the First Division in 1999, to winning the Mexican Football Championships for the first time in team history.  The management team also focused on Benchmarking to make improvements.  This included visiting teams in Argentina, Spain and Germany, analysing and adopting successful strategies for winning, improving goodwill and increasing profits.  This clearly shows that any company from any industry can benefit from developing an effective QMS.  Good luck to Monarcas Morelia - Perhaps our own teams in England could learn from this example.