There is a significant range of existing standards that set out agreed specifications for goods and services, processes and performance. However, the Business Capability Partnership has chosen to focus specifically on what we call ‘process and management standards’. These are standards that codify good management practice, enabling organisations to benefit from expertise that has been developed in other organisations, whilst avoiding the cost associated with developing their own protocols.
Effective process and management standards help define aspects of process reliability and quality, which help markets work more effectively (by reducing transaction costs) and can facilitate entry into global markets. However, standards can act also as barriers to firm-level innovation by being irrelevant, encouraging ‘just good enough’ behaviour, or through regulatory capture.
The Management Systems and Standards Working Group believes that effective process and management standards, as well as certification processes, can play an important role in developing business and management capability without creating unnecessary compliance costs.