Customized Products

ISO Principles and Development Process
ISO standards are developed according to the following principles:

Consensus
The views of all interests are taken into account: manufacturers, vendors and users, consumer groups, testing laboratories, governments, engineering professions and research organizations.
Industry Wide
Global solutions to satisfy industries and customers worldwide.
Voluntary
International standardization is market driven and therefore based on voluntary involvement of all interests in the market-place.
ISO Standard Development Process
There are three main phases in the ISO standards development process as follows:

The need for a standard is usually expressed by an industry sector, which communicates this need to a national member body. The latter proposes the new work item to ISO as a whole. Once the need for an International Standard has been recognized and formally agreed, the first phase involves definition of the technical scope of the future standard. This phase is usually carried out in working groups which comprise technical experts from countries interested in the subject matter.
Once agreement has been reached on which technical aspects are to be covered in the standard, a second phase is entered during which countries negotiate the detailed specifications within the standard. This is the consensus-building phase.
The final phase comprises the formal approval of the resulting draft International Standard (the acceptance criteria stipulate approval by two-thirds of the ISO members that have participated actively in the standards development process, and approval by 75% of all members that vote), following which the agreed text is published as an ISO International Standard.
Most standards require periodic revision. Several factors combine to render a standard out of date: technological evolution, new methods and materials, new quality and safety requirements. To take account of these factors, ISO has established the general rule that all ISO standards should be reviewed at intervals of not more than five years. On occasion, it is necessary to revise a standard earlier.

To date, ISO’s work has resulted in over 19 000 International Standards. ISO has 162 national members, but its three official languages are English, French, and Russian.

DROPBOX:Customized Products
When companies decide to sell their products in other countries, they must
decide whether to use a standard product or to customize it to the particular
country. Some products such as cars can be sold in a similar format; however, some restaurants, such as McDonald’s might modify their product to meet different needs.

Companies must also decide whether they will standardize their marketing
plans, such as advertising campaigns in different countries.

Go online and find one product that is produced by a company from each of the following categories that is doing business internationally and explain how the company has customized the product for a market in another country. Be sure to cite your sources. Provide an analysis and rationale why the company has taken this route.

Choose your companies from the following list:

A petroleum company
A software company
A soft drink company
A food chain
A car company
Herbal medicine industry
Environmental management company