Standards — A Strategic Business Issue

Are you overlooking a strategic business issue? You may be, if you are not involved in the development of standards that may impact your business.

Because technical participation in standards development generally yields direct and measurable progress that can be tied to a company’s “bottom line” financials, such participation is easily justified. A study conducted in Europe in 1997- 2000 showed that industrywide standards not only have a positive effect on the economy as a whole, but also provide benefits for individual businesses that use them as strategic market instruments.

In today’s market, a company cannot wait until a standard has been published to begin to build to it. By that time, those who actively participated in the work are well along the path of integration and implementation of the standard and are ready to take it to market.

Innovation is an important factor in maintaining competitiveness and economic growth, but is of limited value unless this innovation is effectively disseminated. Standards are one means of disseminating new ideas and technologies.

Therefore, in today’s global economy, standards should be addressed as part of your company’s strategic plan.

Multinational agreements (such as those incorporated into the European Free Trade Agreement and the North American Free Trade Agreement, and those adopted by the European Union) are making proactive participation in the development of both national and international technical and safety standards a necessity. To remain competitive, many companies have recognized the importance of active participation, and have made the transition from simply using standards that were developed by others, to actively participating in the development of safety and technical standards that may directly affect them.

The basic strategic decision your company must make is whether it wants to follow standards or to actively participate in, and perhaps lead, the standards-making activity in a particular area. Whichever is chosen, a company needs to take a proactive stance to standards activities.