Standards are predominately the domain of engineers and I often find that they are not as aware of the political aspects of standardization as they might be. So many times people are surprised to find that gaming the standards system is quite possible. Certainly, the situation with the deisel engined automobiles from VW makes us critically aware that not only is it possible to game the system, but it can be done on a remarkably large scale.
Here’s what. I discovered very early into my ownership of Document Center Inc. that it’s possible to rig standards for one’s own benefit. I had a customer who as a civilian had written a military specification. The DoD procuring officer in charge of the document didn’t feel technically capable of writing it himself. So he asked my customer to do it for him. And guess what? The customer cleverly wrote the specification for this small part in such a way that it would be economically unfeasible for any competitor to bid on supplying it to the government (he wrote a particular shape into the document). Net result? The customer’s company was the sole supplier in the U.S. for this item.
Here’s what. The situation with Qualcomm, Nokia, and the GSM standard for cell phones is another example of gaming the standards system. That particular situation was complex. But the decision by regulators to favor one standard over another in a particular region for the benefit of a local company over a foriegn one is not all that unusual. Gaming the system? You bet!
So the thing about the VW situation that I really notice is that (as it is being reported in my paper, the Wall Street Journal), it is a situation that leads right back to the top. Considering the change in top management as soon as the situation became public is very suggestive, wouldn’t you agree? Meantime, the ISO 14001 environmental standard, to which VW is certified, states that compliance needs to be championed with management first. Not exactly… So here is a company that says one thing and does another. And while it was working, hey, they were gaming the standards system!
What’s the phrase, “trust but verify”? I am surprised that it took our California regulators to find such a blatent trick that allowed these cars to pass their tests and yet not deliver on their promise on the road. What the heck has been going on in Europe?
Let me know what you think. Is this a standards problem or a failure of ethics?
Claudia