VOLUME 13, NO. 1     DEC 1999

ISO 9000 gears up for 2000

Sermin Caola '83 is founder and president of the European Community Institute, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping companies attain or maintain ISO 9000 certification. It's an especially challenging task right now, with the international standards for quality assurance being updated for the year 2000. The recently drafted revisions are still under review, and the new standards will not be published in final form until the last quarter of 2000.

"It's the equivalent of the Y2K problem for computers," says Caola, who earned a Ph.D. in chemistry at WPI in 1982 and holds an undergraduate degree from Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey. "People want to know ahead of time what the changes will be, so they can prepare in advance instead of spending the next two years catching up. They want the information fast--faster than anyone else. It's a competitive business."

To bring together all the information and experts in an efficient format, Caola presents a three-day conference that attracts Fortune 500 companies as well as small and mid-size businesses. Before this year's conference in Orlando, Fla., had concluded, she was already at work on the 8th Annual International Conference on ISO 9000 and Related Standards, scheduled for March 12-14, 2000, at Walt Disney World Village in Lake Buena Vista, Fla.

In addition to organizing the conference--an all-volunteer effort--Caola recently began a one-year term as the ISO 9000 Congressional Fellow, a newly created position funded by several nonprofit organizations to raise awareness of quality management issues among political leaders. A former chemist at Allegheny-Teldyne Processing Inc. and an organizer by nature, Caola called upon her financial management skills and her persuasive people skills to build the conference from scratch, with no reputation and no budget.

"Without a product to show, I had to find people who would believe in me," she explains. "Initially I recruited my professional friends in Europe. Once I had gotten some very well-known individuals onto my advisory board, I could approach individuals in this country. When I explained the need for an international conference, people were very helpful with their knowledge and contacts.

"I didn't realize it at the time," she muses, "but when I look back, I think, 'Wow, I must have been out of my mind to take this on!' But, at that time, American companies were sending their people to Europe to get this training. Think about the expense! Only very large companies could afford to do that. I was convinced that if I brought speakers to this country, I could make this knowledge accessible to anyone who wants to comply with ISO 9000 standards."

The European Community Institute, based in Pittsburgh, was founded in 1992, the same year the European Union was formed. The name was inspired by the fact that ISO 9000 standards were first developed in Europe to allow trade between EU countries. With 20 percent of her conference participants coming from abroad, Caola strives to keep an international focus, and to incorporate other quality management techniques, such as Total Quality Management. Reviews have been positive, and many of this year's attendees indicated that they would return. Future goals for the European Community Institute include programs on international trade and the new Euro Dollar.

--Joan Killough-Miller