Just to be honest: chances are you find standards boring. Or that you see them as an obligation. But what if we told you that these "boring" rules determine how much you sell, how much you export, AND how much profit you make?
As an SME, you have to deal with standards every day (think quality, security or data), but who actually writes those rules? Big companies? Competitors from abroad? They often do. And that's exactly why you need to stand up now.
The wake-up call 📢 Who writes the rules for you?
Somewhere in Europe or the rest of the world, experts sit together to set standards for the future. These are not abstract rules, but the blueprints for your industry, your products and your services. They define what will be "the standard" tomorrow.
The biggest mistake you can make is to wait until the standard is finished.
If the standard is written by large multinationals or organizations with huge budgets, there is a great danger:
- the cost squeeze: the standard may mandate machines, processes or materials that are perfect for a multinational with its own engineering department. For your SME, however, this is a disproportionate capital investment that will strain your competitive position or even threaten your survival. It is not the purchase of the standard that is expensive, but the implementation that becomes prohibitive.
- the administrative trap: the standard may require procedures and documentation that cost hundreds of man-hours per year. A large company can hire staff to do this; as an SME, you or one of your few employees must add this heavy administrative burden. This comes at the expense of the time you want to devote to core tasks and growth.
- technical blindness: the standard prescribes the most sophisticated (and most expensive) solution, while there are often simpler, scalable and equally secure alternatives for SMEs. Without your voice, the door to those affordable alternatives remains closed.
imagine concretely:
- A new machine safety standard requires a specific, extremely expensive testing device only needed once a year. This costs thousands of dollars in modifications in your small workshop, when an approved, cheaper method would have sufficed.
- An IT security standard forces you to adopt a cumbersome and complex protocol, needlessly slowing down your software development, when a simpler, SME-friendly security system would have sufficed.
By having a say in standards, you are defending your interests and ensuring that rules remain realistic and affordable to the SME reality. It's your chance to say "no" to unnecessary complexity.
Specifically, what does your SME gain from this?
Aside from avoiding unnecessary costs, participating in standards development provides you with tangible benefits in the workplace:
- Faster exports: if your product meets internationally recognized standards (such as ISO), this opens the doors to foreign countries. You don't have to prove again in each country that your product is sound. Your export opportunities increase significantly.
- Cost savings and efficiency: standards are best practices. By helping write them, you guarantee that your Organisation 's processes are efficient, leading to cost savings and fewer errors.
- Your quality and customer satisfaction rise: you build systems that are proven to work. This increases the reliability of your services, leading to higher customer satisfaction and a stronger reputation.
- You are the innovator: you gain early knowledge of future technical requirements. This allows you to directly align your innovation processes with tomorrow's market, before your competitors do.
In short, those who participate in standards are investing in competitive advantage and future-proofing.
Your roadmap: how to join the conversation in Belgium
You don't have to camp out in the corridors of the European Commission to have your say. There are two low-threshold ways to make your voice heard in Belgium:
- Become an expert in a standards committee: are you the specialist in your field? Register as an SME expert in a technical committee. You provide your expertise directly to help write the standard.
- Comment: standards are not written in secret. When a draft is ready, the public portal allows you to view the standard and formally submit your comments and concerns.
It is time to stop being a norm follower and become a norm setter.
