In 2000, ISO9001 changed  fundamentally. The revised standard was governed by good business principles and not by  conformance to 20 elements of the standard. The old standard could be achieved without adding value to business: thus earning the epithet (often unjustly) of ‘certified to consistently produce rubbish’. The old management systems were often seen as necessary evils to secure organisations’ ability to supply others. 
External auditors often exacerbated this perception by their non conformance reports of small often pedantic points.
The new standard is based on satisfying 8 principles, namely:

1. Customer Focus
2. Leadership
3. Involvement of people
4. A process approach
5. A systems approach to management
6. Continual improvement
7. Factual approach to decision making
8. Mutually beneficial supplier relationships 
   

To develop a quality management system to add value and satisfy these requirements, an organisation needs to refer to its fundamental business goals. Key Performance is well qualified to extract or develop these organisational goals and their associated critical success criteria and objectives. ‘High level’ business processes can be then identified and defined in terms of their inputs, enablers, constraints, outputs, measures, accountabilities and any fundamental issues affecting their effectiveness. This ‘high level’ approach enables organisations to prioritise their approach to business success. The quality management system can then be developed on the basis that it will facilitate business success.
 
This approach is perceived as sophisticated yet very simple and elegant.
More importantly it works well.