Aligning Market Needs and the Standard’s Mission

In the evolving world of innovation and strategic development, identifying and addressing gaps—whether in the marketplace or within existing standards—becomes essential for sustainable progress. Gaps are often seen as voids or deficiencies, but in truth, they are areas of opportunity. These gaps can emerge in different stages, from discovering unmet market needs to improving and assessing standards that no longer serve their intended purpose.

The Nature of Gaps

There are several distinct types of gaps we must address when it comes to standards:

Discovery Gaps: These occur when market needs exist but are either unrecognized or unaddressed by current standards. This is where innovation plays its most critical role. For example, the emergence of the Internet of Things (IoT) exposed significant gaps in security and interoperability standards that hadn’t been fully considered. With AI technologies, it won't be different.

Development Gaps: Once identified, the challenge becomes developing standards that close these gaps. Here, organizations must balance innovation with practicality, ensuring that new standards are forward-thinking yet achievable. Development gaps often occur when market expectations evolve faster than the ability of standards bodies to keep pace.

Improvement Gaps: No standard is perfect. Over time, even the best standards become outdated as technology and market conditions change. Improvement gaps highlight areas where an existing standard may no longer be entirely relevant, leading to inefficiencies or risks.

Assessment Gaps: Finally, gaps can arise in a standard's real-world application even after it is developed and implemented. Assessment gaps exist when we fail to monitor or measure the standard’s impact adequately. They often manifest as unintended consequences or the slow emergence of unforeseen challenges.

Market Needs: The Engine of Standardization

Market needs are often dynamic, shaped by new technologies, regulatory shifts, and evolving consumer expectations. To address these needs effectively, we must constantly be attuned to subtle and seismic changes. Standards must be living entities capable of evolving with the industries they support. Failure to do so results in stagnation, with standards becoming barriers rather than enablers of innovation.

?Consider, for example, the evolving standards around cybersecurity. In the past, security measures might have been limited to individual devices or networks. But as the world becomes more interconnected, the need for overarching, comprehensive security standards grows. Yet, many of these gaps are only discovered when new risks—such as cyberattacks—become too real. The challenge lies in anticipating future market needs before gaps expose vulnerabilities.

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The Standard’s Mission: A North Star

While standards must address market needs, they are also guided by a core mission. The purpose of any standard is not just to fill gaps but to ensure safety, efficiency, interoperability, and fairness. Standards create shared language and expectations, allowing industries to thrive collectively, even while they compete individually.

The mission of any standardization body—such as ISO,? IEEE, NIST, or ASTM—remains steadfast: ensuring the reliability, quality, and safety of products and services. However, the mission must also evolve. For example, ISO 9001 focuses on quality management systems, and its iterative updates reflect an understanding that quality cannot remain static. The ongoing assessment of market conditions, coupled with the standard’s overarching mission, ensures that gaps are discovered early and addressed appropriately.

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Best Practices in Standardization: Bridging the Gap

Organizations like ISO and IEEE offer frameworks and guidance to help companies and industries recognize and actively address these gaps. ISO’s Best Practice Guides emphasize a cyclical approach: continuously developing, assessing, and refining standards. Meanwhile, IEEE’s Standardization Principles stress the importance of inclusivity, ensuring that standards are developed through consensus among all stakeholders, from industry leaders to end consumers.

?Following these best practices ensures that gaps don’t become gaping holes—vulnerabilities that put industries at risk. Instead, they become pathways for growth, refinement, and progress.

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Balancing Market Needs and Mission

In the complex world of standardization, the challenge lies in balancing two often competing forces: fast-moving and unpredictable market needs and the standard’s mission, which is more stable and long-term. The gaps that emerge between these two forces should not be seen as failures but as necessary points of tension that drive the evolution of both.

Successful standards work recognizes this duality. Those involved in creating, developing, and maintaining standards must balance adaptation with stability, ensuring that standards stay relevant without losing focus on their core mission. To navigate this tension effectively, we need a disciplined approach, blending the wisdom of steadfastness with a human-centred mindset that embraces flexibility and innovation.

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Conclusion

The gaps in discovering, developing, improving, and assessing standards are not roadblocks. They are opportunities—valuable spaces where we can align evolving market needs with the enduring mission of standards. By recognizing and addressing these gaps, we don’t just fill voids; we pave the way for innovation, efficiency, and progress across industries.

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As Marcus Aurelius once advised, “What stands in the way becomes the way.” The gaps we encounter in the world of standardization are no different. They are not obstacles but rather signposts, guiding us toward better solutions, more robust standards, and a more resilient future.

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These resources offer deep insights into addressing gaps through best practices in standardization.

ISO Good Standardization Practices (GSP) - This publication provides guidelines for national standards bodies on how to effectively develop, assess, and refine standards to align with market demands and international goals: ISO GSP Guide - https://www.iso.org/files/live/sites/isoorg/files/store/en/PUB100440.pdf

ANSI Handbook on Standards Development - A comprehensive overview of standards development processes, focusing on filling gaps through collaboration and consensus: ANSI Standards Handbook - https://share.ansi.org/Shared Documents/Standards Activities/International Standardization/Standards Alliance/Handbook/StandardsAlliance-Handbook-2022-INTRO.pdf

Standards, Conformity Assessment, and Trade - A detailed exploration of how gaps in standard development can impact global trade and industrial competitiveness: NAP Standardization Report - https://doi.org/10.17226/4921

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About the author:

Dr. Nihad Bassis is a Global Expert in Management of Innovation and Technology leading Business and Solution Architecture Projects for over 20 years in the fields of Digital Transformation, Smart Mobility, Smart Homes, IoT, UAV and Artificial Intelligence (NLP, RPA, Quality, Compliance & Regulations). During his professional career, Dr. Bassis held positions at organizations such as Desjardins Bank (Canada), Ministry of Justice (Canada), Alten Inc. (France), United Nations, UNESCO, UNODC, IFX Corporation, Cofomo Development Inc. (Canada), Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Brazil). His deep knowledge and experience earned him a singular distinction: participation in international committees shaping international standards for Software Engineering, Technological Innovation and Sustainability, Project Management and Artificial Intelligence. He lent his expertise to renowned institutions like ISO, IEEE, SCC, and ABNT.

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