Reasons a Company Becomes Certified in ISO 9000

ISO 9000 certification or registration can be an expensive process. A company must consider the reasons and promised benefits for going through this process. If a company decides to seek certification, they should consider making sure their suppliers are certified or at least compliant to the ISO 9000 standards.

Major reasons
In the early 1990s, companies seemed to be jumping on the certification bandwagon without seriously considering the rationale for doing so. Often they did so because competitors or "everybody else" is getting registered. Today companies seriously look at the reasons and benefits for becoming registered.

The major reasons that company leadership or management decides to seek ISO 9000 certification are to gain continued or increased business and to maintain effective operations.

Improved business
A company can maintain a relationship with customers, as well as get increased business through complying to the ISO 900 standards or becoming certified. This comes from satisfying customer demands, the desire for European business, and to advertise.

Finally, some companies want to become certified, so they can advertise that fact and give the impression of being better than their competitors.

You have seen ads with a logo stating the company is certified at some ISO 9000 level. It apparently gives those companies a leg up on competitors not registered.

Again, this seemed more important in the 1990s, but you don't see that many companies using ISO 9000 certification as an advertising tool.


ISO 9000 is supposed to make sure your business is run in an orderly manner that will assure continued success.

One would think that a goal such as being run effectively and able to deliver goods consistently and reliably would also be desirable for a company's own operation. Surprisingly, many companies do not consider that as a goal.