‘Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance’ was the catchy title of a work on metaphysics of quality in early 1970s. A similar work in the twenty first century can be aptly named ‘QAM and the Art of ISO Certification’. The whole of services sector is currently flooded with QAMs (Quality Assurance Managers) and quite ironically quality has become the main casualty in the process. ISO (International Standards Organisation or International Organisation for Standardisation) which created these QAMs in the first place are now finding it difficult to handle these demons (mostly in coat and tie). They resemble and have begun to act like the legendary demon let off the ancient bottle by the poor farmer. QAMs want ISO to survive but ISO is dying because of QAMs. If ISO does not find out a way to contain the damage caused by these QAMs (aided and abetted by the so-called certification agencies), ISO might itself end up as a dirty word.

Certification and recertification of companies in the services sector is one of the pet projects for any Quality professional. For the companies it is a pre-requisite for attempting more business, but for the QAM it is a few years of cushy and effortless job. The entire system works like a big bad caucus. Current certification industry is dominated by a few multi-national agencies and they themselves demarcate their regions like some of the wild animals in the forest. The tacit demarcation comes in the form of geographical areas or fields of operation. But the competing parties always follow the dictum that dog will not eat dog. It is very rare that one party gets into the certification or re-certification program of another one. The certification agencies know very well that ‘united we stand and divided we fall’. The last thing they want the world to know is their trade secret of minting money with zero value addition.

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