ISO 9000 was originally developed as a generic description of the characteristics found in the best and most successful businesses in the world … a collection of best practices that have proven successful over time. So while ISO 9000 wears a 1987 birthday, it contains the experience and expertise of several generations of people and several decades of business success.

Even new and apparently successful businesses such as Google and others need many / most of the concepts contained in the standard. Everyone agrees that any business must change and adapt in order to survive long term. The Google products of today will be the buggy whips of some future generation without some systematic methodology for introducing change based on the market, customer needs and technology growth.

The ISO 9000 structure contains provision for such a methodology. If you believe the concepts in ISO 9000 to be irrelevant in today’s business world, or believe them to be much too cumbersome to attempt to implement, you have missed the point of the ageless nature of the standard.

Even the International Organization for Standardization (owner of the ISO 9000 series of standards) states in published information:

“Certification is not a requirement of ISO 9001 or ISO 14001. The organization can implement and benefit from an ISO 9001 or ISO 14001 system without having it certified. The organization can implement them for the internal benefits without spending money on a certification programme.”

Overview of ISO 9001 and ISO 14001
by Roger Frost
e-mail frost@iso.org
Manager, Communication Services
2009-01-08

So the conclusion is that the standard has an intrinsic value independent of “official certification”. My experience shows that when implemented with the proper mind set, there are very significant benefits of using ISO 9000 as a platform for organizational development and sustainability.

We could call this the “silver bullet” syndrome or some such title as that. What we all come to realize at some point is that there is no such thing as a silver bullet or a “one size fits all” solution to these very complex situations. Each organization has it’s own personality and culture so “perfect” in one business is a disaster in another business even though they make the same product with the same materials and equipment or they sell the same goods or services. Even McDonalds restaurants, the benchmark for consistent food and service, is a victim of the “silver bullet” syndrome. The buildings, equipment, food prep formulas, food ingredients and prep procedures are the same in New Mexico as in Oregon as in New York as in Cairo as in …. Yet the average person can see a difference in the taste, service and quality of the food.

We need to look to the process description of the business, the measurements of that / those processes and the optimal solution for the business / process / market / customer / economic combination.