ISO 9001 is a basic essential set of management criteria that provide the foundation for quality and continual improvement. Managers need to address and document these basic criteria in order to ensure that their products and/or services meet the wants, needs, expectations and requirements defined by their customers.

ISO 9001 international quality management standards, a product of the International Organization for Standardization, were first published in 1987 to assist businesses and organizations to develop and maintain quality practices.

The standards are generic and are applicable to marketing organizations, wineries, food and beverage companies, manufacturing, service organizations and government operations. The focus of ISO is on systems - linked interacting processes - which are common to all businesses. An ISO 9001 quality management system provides effective and efficient control of all your quality processes.

Businesses develop quality management systems for three primary reasons:

1. to optimize quality by streamlining and improving internal operations to reduce costs;
2. to meet customer expectations;
3. and, to increase their competitiveness in the market.

As organizations implement ISO, they experience increased ability to meet performance goals and business objectives. They discover ways to streamline their business and therefore increase the bottom line, i.e., increase profit in a for-profit business and increase efficiency and performance in a not-for-profit organization.

• Increases the bottom line in more than 90% of companies (Source: Dun and Bradstreet 1999]
• Creates continual improvement through the evaluation and feedback loops;
• Is an internationally accepted approach for managing and improving organizations;
• Results in clear statements of roles and responsibilities for all individuals in the organization; forces clarity;
• Establishes a foundation and framework for change;
• Provides confidence that time is spent on priorities, addressing important objectives and maintaining organizational focus;
• Creates and fosters teamwork;
• Focuses on processes, products and improvement, thereby creating a non-judgmental environment;
• Assures all work adds value;
• Provides necessary foundation for addressing Baldrige criteria;
• Requires deployment of process to control documents;
• Maximizes work product, especially in times of shrinking resources;
• Protects the integrity of products and services provided to all stakeholders in an environment where leadership and operational personnel changes are not uncommon
• Makes life simpler through clarification of business objectives and production or service processes

• Recognized and respected by the business community; often a requirement of doing business.
• Provides performance accountability;
• Creates positive differentiation in competitive funding situations;
• Establishes credibility with stakeholders that the organization is well managed.
• Creates an effective partnering/merging of cultures (important in takeovers and multiple-agency shops)

• Worldwide, over 982,832 organizations in 176 countries are certified to the quality management standard, ISO 9001
• The most rapid growth in the US is in non-manufacturing.

• Worldwide, over 188,815 organizations in 155 countries are certified to the environmental management standard, ISO 14001

• Worldwide, over 8,102 organizations in 112 countries are certified to the food safety management standard, ISO 22000.

Quality is meeting and exceeding the expectations of one's customers. Quality is not just a general feeling of goodness; it is a measurable goal, a performance standard and the result of systematic planning, implementation and evaluation. To survive in a competitive environment, businesses providing goods or services must ensure that their customers are receiving quality for their investment.

In summary, the ISO approach to quality management allows you to say what you do, do what you say and (im)prove it -QED.