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The Importance of Correctly Adopting ISO Standards in Business and Its Impact on
Process Management and Customer Satisfaction
Justin McGreevy
Professional Studies, Southwestern College
BQM 363: ISO Standards and Applications
Robin Hancock, Professor
May 19, 2024
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The Importance of Correctly Adopting ISO Standards in Business
ISO Certification’s Impact on Business Relations
ISO 9001 certification immediately communicates to customers, and business
competitors, that an organization is committed to quality and invested in the customer’s voice. It
states that a company has displayed and maintained global standards of process management,
problem-solving, and innovation. For these reasons, in some markets it has become a
requirement for some organizations to achieve certification in order to maintain or establish
business opportunities. To be clear, the requirement comes from the customers and partners in
the industry, not the International Standards Organization itself, and it is due to the reassurance
of all parties that comes with working with certified companies. Working with organizations that
are certified offers, as put by Global Guardian, an ISO-certified security services firm, “the
reassurance that your organization is working with a provider that has implemented robust
systems to ensure consistency, reduce risk, and deliver results” (Global Guardian, 2023).
Because ISO certification has such heft and reassurance in industry, small businesses will
become certified to put their foot in the global market. These businesses will gain “entry to a
wider range of potential customers and partners, expanding (their) market reach and revenue
streams” (ISO Management Consultant Ltd, 2023) if they are able to successfully achieve
certification. With these doors open, companies can expand their customer and supplier base, as
well as opportunities for joint efforts and collaborations.
The right motivation for seeking ISO certification should be a mixture of how best to
manage your company and as a way to win customer confidence. As an approach to
organizational management, certification will optimize many of your processes, eliminate wasted
resources, and cause the culture of your company to focus on producing consistent results. As a
strategy to win and satisfy customers, it will offer your company respect in the global market and
potentially win prospective customers (Donohue, 2022).
Certification for the Right Reasons
The drive to become certified to maintain these business opportunities can then become
the driving reason for certification, as opposed to becoming a company that displays and
operates under the characteristics and conditions worthy of being certified. Not only does this
cheapen the concept of ISO certification, this dilutes the impact such organizations would have
on their growth and process refinement. It also jeopardizes their ability to sustain implemented
standards over time; if they are seeking only initial certification, there is no motivation to invest
the resources to cement their quality management system or their processes to maintain
performance at ISO’s required standard. Certainly, businesses should strive to expand business
opportunities if they are interested in growth. They should seek to become an organization
worthy of landing those opportunities through their commitment to quality and customer
satisfaction, and view the certification as a vessel to speak to that commitment.
If management and senior leadership do not stand behind the commitment required for
sustained certification, they will almost certainly fail to maintain compliance and lose their initial
certification due to the requirement of ongoing monitoring. ISO standards and compliance are
more than a business opportunity, they are an agreed-upon collection of best practices that take
significant investment to meet and maintain. To do so successfully, all facets of the organization
need to be bought into the concept of quality and customer satisfaction as it applies to their
specific industry.
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Conclusion
There are many benefits to be gained from ISO certification. Global markets, increased
reputation, potential growth, built-in processes for performance review, and the confidence of
knowing that you are compliant with the standards determined to be best practices are just a few.
Certification can open many doors for a small business, provided they have resources available
to invest and the commitment of their staff to hit the required quality milestones necessary.
However, it is important to the reputations of both the International Standards Organization and
the business to approach certification with the intent to become a company that performs at the
highest standards, and not simply as a method to accrue more business opportunities.
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References
Donohue, J. (2022). ISO Compliance: What is it & how does it impact your business? Diligent.
https://www.diligent.com/resources/blog/iso-compliance-and-why-it-matters
Global Guardian. (2022). Understanding ISO Standards: Why Do They Matter? Global
Guardian. https://www.globalguardian.com/global-digest/understanding-iso-standards
ISO Management Consultant, Ltd. (2023). Elevating Competitiveness: The Global Impact of ISO
Certification on Business. Medium.
https://medium.com/@isomanagement.promotion/elevating-competitiveness-the-global-
impact-of-iso-certification-on-businesses-b22bbb704325#:~:text=Access%20to%20New
%20Markets&text=Many%20countries%20and%20industries%20require,market%20reach
%20and%20revenue%20streams
