On standards as change agents - From a pragmatic business perspective

Unlike many of the papers on standardization to be presented in this conference which are based on discrete standardization events, this paper looks at standardization as a method, a process, and a business practice (like marketing or finance or engineering). The basic contention of the paper is that standards are tools used by participants whose business goal requires them to use standards to shift or change the market in a manner that marketing, technology, of finance cannot. This view of standards accords them the status of any other management discipline - but with the additional complication that most of the events occur in forums outside the apparent direct control of the players. Additionally, while the environment in which standards operate (as well as the way that they operate) has changed substantially over the past 100 years, the ultimate underlying intention of commercial support of standardization (market control and management) has not. While this paper exposes some of the trends in the standardization industry, it can propose only a limited set of responses to these challenges, since many of the issues transcend standards and are socially and economically based. Please note that the author is somewhat US-centric in his description of the recent history of “commercially focused” ICT standardization, for which he apologizes.