Usually engineers and scientists mulled over the exact content of technical standards. These were analytical people, performing a valuable service as part of the company’s technical team.

Upper management, for the most part, handled the business end of the operation. And as long as sound documentation was being used by the technical staff and the product was good, the two worlds generally remained defined and separate.

Slowly but surely, things began to change and standards took on a higher profile. They evolved and migrated—moving from their comfortable spot on the engineer’s desk to a high-powered place on the conference table. Why? The quality movement, global competition, the Internet, and trade wars?

Well, when a technical document serves as your product’s passport into new markets, management begins paying attention to standards. From a product’s design phase to the marketing of it, standards can be powerful allies as well as formidable enemies. If your company’s product is blocked out of a market because it doesn’t meet a required standard, you lose market share. Conversely, if you are aware of the strategic significance of standards and understand how to make standards work for your company, the competitive advantages are significant and they can be yours. Unfortunately, today there are still many examples of companies that do not have full understanding or appreciation of standards, nor do they enjoy their full benefits.

By the same token, the technical staff must understand the corporation’s vision, and how the standards they develop affect their company’s bottom line, their industry, and even their own careers. At varying levels, the employees of today’s enterprises need to be savvy in areas far beyond the requirements stated in a job description.

ASTM Business Link, then, is addressed to today’s scientist, today’s engineer, and today’s manager, all of whom must combine tech savvy with business savvy. This new publication from ASTM, a leader in the world of standards, goes beyond the tech-talk about standards development to form the link between these documents of trade and the more general business solutions you can—and must—master in the economy of the 21st century. Let us know what you’d like to learn more about; we’ll try to cover it.

We hope you enjoy this inaugural issue of ASTM Business Link.