CC BY
90
Neuer Inhaber von Pepsi Mister Gut war der Meinung, dass dieses Geschaeft nichts bringt und war kurz davon die Firma zu verkaufen. Doch es kam eine Idee die Pepsi in die Bierflaschen einzuschenken. Jetzt konnte Firma doppel so viel anbieten als sein Konkurent Coca. Auserdem es gelang ihm die Preise so zu senken, dass eine bloss fuenf Cent kostete.
Es waren die Zeiten der grossen Depression, deshalb so billiges Getraenk war gefragt. Pepsi erlebte den Aufschwung, wobei Coca erleidete die Vereluste. So was wollte sie nicht so lange gefallen lassen und versuchte den Konkurent juristisch aus dem Markt zu jagen. So erfolgte eine Gerichtsklage wegen Missbrauch einer Marke Cola. Die Leitung von Cola war sicher, das es gelingt den Erzrivallen aus dem weg zu raemen. Im Gericht zeigten sie Urteile ueber vorrige Konkurrenten der Coca.
Doch das Gericht wollte nicht so populaere Drink verschwinden zu lassen, dazu kam Zweite Weltkrieg und da gab es Auftraege sowohl fuer Pepsi als auch fuer Coca. Soldaten der US-Army tranken gerne beides und die Preise fuer sie keine Rolle mehr spielten.
So kam zum Friedensabkommen zwischen beiden Unternehmen. Nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg beide Firmen traffen sich wieder im Gericht. Die Coca-Cola war unzufrieden dass Pepsi mehr begehrt ist und grossere Gewinne erzielte, doch wieder Gerichtsurteil fuehrte dazu, dass die beide Unternehmen unabhaengig exes-tieren duerfen.
Die Pepsi und Coca gingen sein eigenen Weg. Coca orientierte sich aufJugend und die Kinder, wobei Pepsi mehr bei den aelteren Leuten populaer war. Die beide Firmen unternahmen tytanische Bemuehungen im Bereich Design. Neuer Krieg begann mit der Einfuehrung der Blechdosen, da gingen sie Schritt fuer Schritt und man kam kaum feststellen wer als Gewinner raus kam. Beide Firmen sparen nicht fuer die Werbung, welcher man ueberall sehen oder hoeren kann.
In den 90 Jahren waren populaer die sogenannten Elefantenhochzeiten, wann die Grossunternehmen sich vereinigten. Doch fuer Pepsi und Coca ist es nicht der Fall, sie sind Erzrivallen fuer immer.
Ceko Enriko, Dr. MBA. MSc, Head of Management Department Akademia Profesionale e Biznesit E-mail: enrikoceko@yahoo.co.uk
On relations between quality management, doing business and life quality (a comparative analysis of Balkans with Western European countries)
Abstract: The purpose of research: Determination of relations between quality management, doing business and life quality and giving some thoughts to improve the situation regarding the quality institutions and quality infrastructure parallel with doing business climate and life quality.
Methods: Collection of information, data and facts for quality management, doing business and life quality mainly from primary sources, comparing the information, data and facts gathered, conducting relevant analysis and make recommendations on this issue.
Results: Balkan countries recently have joined the international community of ISO standards as well as being part of World Bank Reports on Doing Business and Life Quality Index studies. These those countries for years have had multiple problems regarding quality's institutions, quality infrastructure, doing business issues and life quality level, problems that affect the development and performance of businesses, development and economic growth, sustainable development and improving the quality of life of citizens under the framework of the Balkan's integration into the Europe and beyond.
Outcome: Improving quality's institutions, quality infrastructure, doing business climate in Balkans will have a positive impact on increasing economic growth and improving the quality of life of citizens within the Balkan's integration into the Europe and wider.
Keywords: quality management, ISO standards, quality's institutions, quality infrastructure, doing business climate, life quality.
1. Doing business and global trends on doing Societies need regulation, and businesses, as part of
business society, are no exception. Without the rules that underpin
their establishment, operation and dissolution, modern businesses cannot exist. And where markets left to themselves would produce poor outcomes, well-designed regulation can ensure outcomes that are socially optimal and likely to leave everyone better off. Doing Business focuses on regulations and regulatory processes involved in setting up and operating a business. It analyzes those that address asymmetries in information (such as credit market regulations), those that balance asymmetries in bargaining power (such as labor market regulations) and those that enable the provision of public goods or services (such as business or property registration).
Countless transactions are required to set up and operate a business. When starting a new business, entrepreneurs need to establish a legal entity separate from themselves to limit their liability and to allow the business to live beyond the life of its owners, a process requiring commercial registration. To operate their business, entrepreneurs may need a simple way to export and import; they may need to obtain a building permit or acquire property to expand their business; they may need to resolve a commercial dispute through the courts; and they are very likely to need an inflow of funds through credit or new equity. Regulation is at the heart of all these transactions. If well designed, regulation can facilitate these transactions and allow businesses to operate effectively; if badly designed, it can make completing these transactions difficult.
Doing Business is a World Bank Group Report Measuring Regulatory Quality and Efficiency, measuring the regulations that enhance business activity and those that constrain it. Doing Business presents quantitative indicators on business regulations and the protection of property rights that can be compared across 189 economies of the world. Doing Business measures regulations affecting several areas of the life of a business, like starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting minority investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts and resolving insolvency.
Doing Business report of 2014, 2015 and 2016 finds that entrepreneurs in more than 100 economies saw improvements in their local regulatory framework, and between June 2014 and June 2015, on 189 economies worldwide have been documented 231 business reforms. Among reforms to reduce the complexity and cost of regulatory processes, those in the area of starting a business were the most common in 2014/15, as in the previous year. The next most common were reforms in the areas of paying taxes, getting electricity and registering property. EU countries enjoy being in top of the list, while some
Balkan countries like Macedonia, etc have been listed between top 20, while some others like Albania have been listed below previous lists [1].
2. Quality management and global trends on ISO certificates
Quality management is the act of overseeing all activities and tasks needed to maintain a desired level of excellence. This includes creating and implementing quality planning and assurance, as well as quality control and quality improvement. Quality management ensures that an organization, product or service is consistent. It has four main components: quality planning, quality assurance, quality control and quality improvement [2]. Quality management is focused not only on product and service quality, but also on the means to achieve it. Quality management, therefore, uses quality assurance and control of processes as well as products to achieve more consistent quality.
Several means to achieve quality management are between doing business regulations and rules, ISO certificates included, which are focused more in quality of procedures private and public subjects follow, which at the end of the day brings higher quality of products and services [3].
Because societies need regulation — and businesses, as part of society, are no exception, ISO certificates finally are part ofbusiness and trade regulations since they are the minimum requisites for characteristics of processes, products and services to be used from private and public entities/subjects to be acceptable from their clients and markets. Without these standards modern private and public entities cannot exist. And where markets left without standards they would produce poor outcomes and finally low life quality for citizens. When starting a new business, or entering in a new phase of enterprise development, entrepreneurs need to establish certain procedures and standards, allowing the business to live beyond minimum frontiers, to export and import, to participate in public procurement procedures, and finally to attract as much as possible clients, for higher profits and achieving other business objectives. Standards are the heart of all these issues, facilitating business transactions and allow businesses to operate effectively.
With 1 609 294 certificates issued worldwide in 2014, there is a slightly up on the previous year, which demonstrates a moderate growth for almost all the ISO management systems standards around the world [4], confirming trends observed over the last two years.
This market stabilization is, however, offset by three good performers exhibiting more sustained
growth. Albeit less impressive than in previous years, ISO 50001 for energy management demonstrates a 40% growth rate, led once again by Germany, responsible for 50% of the 6 778 certificates reported. Similarly, food management standard ISO 22000 contin-
ues to deliver reliable performance with a 14% growth rate, while ISO 16949 for the automotive sector shows accelerated progression with a commendable 8%, signaling that economic recovery in the auto industry is holding up.
Table 1. - ISO Survey Executive Summary. 2014
Standard number ofcertificates in 2014 number of certificates in 2013 evolution evolution in%
ISO 9001 1 138155 1 126 460 11695 1%
ISO 14001 324 148 301 622 22 526 7%
ISO 50001 6 778 4 826 1952 40%
ISO/IEC 27001 23 972 22 349 1623 7%
ISO 22000 30 500 26 847 3 653 14%
ISO/TS 16949 57 950 53 723 4 227 8%
ISO 13485 27 791 25 655 2 136 8%
ISO 22301 1757
TOTAL 1 609 294 1 561 482 47 812 3%
With 1% and 7% respectively, ISO's flagship standards ISO 9001 (quality management) and ISO 14001 (environmental management) are gradually reaching stability although, as the cornerstones of the management system.
Big news for 2014 and 2015 is the increase of ISO 22301 certificated for business continuity issued, motivated by a global awareness that organizations need to protect themselves against disruption in times of crisis. The new recruit made a timid breakthrough with 1.700 certificates, but is thought to hold good potential for the future.
Following on last year's trend, ISO's popular quality management standard (ISO 9001) continues to experience a lull, claiming a mere 1% share of the market. Growth has certainly stabilized since the boom times two decades ago, reflecting the current economic uncertainty in the world. Moreover, in countries with a longer-established tradition of certification, many of the largest companies are already certified and are branching out to more specific standards. The prevailing situation is expected to improve, however, as markets pick up and with the introduction of the new version of ISO 9001 [4] (IS0 9001: 2015).
3. Life quality and global trends to life quality
The Life Quality Index (LQI) is a compound social indicator of human welfare that reflects the expected length of life in good health and enhancement of the quality of life through access to income. The Life Quality Index combines two primary social indicators: the expectancy of healthy life at birth, E, and the real gross domestic product per person, G, corrected for purchasing power parity as appropriate. The three components of the Life Quality Index, G, E and K re-
flect three important human concerns: the creation of wealth, the duration of life in good health and the time available to enjoy life. The amount of life available to enjoy wealth acts as a multiplying factor upon the value of that wealth. Conversely, the amount of income one has to enjoy that available lifetime acts as a multiplier on the expected duration of life. Unlike the United Nations' Human Development Index (HDI), the LQI is derived rigorously from the economics of human welfare [5]. Like the HDI it can be used to rank nations in order of human welfare (development, quality of life). However, more important and unlike the HDI, it can also serve as an objective function to be used in setting national or corporate goals for managing risk and to guide effective allocation of society's scarce resources for the mitigation of risks to life or health, which generally should be related to the application of ISO standards, mainly ISO 9001 (quality management), ISO 14001 (environment protection) and ISO 18001 (health and safety at work), which are main ISO standards required and applied all around the world. The LQI is a summary indicator of net benefit to society for improving the overall public welfare by reducing risks to life in a cost-effective manner [6]. In the accounting and assessment of human development, we can view the role of individuals as the principal means, or contributors, to development as well as the ends. For example, the productivity of an individual contributes directly to the aggregate wealth creation in a society, and the productivity of an individual is related strongly with the productivity of private and public entities, which increase of productivity are considering through achieving and application of ISO standards between other important management activities. However, the income so gener-
ated (to whomsoever it may accrue) increases the capacity of society to provide the necessary means such as the required infrastructure (hospitals, schools, clean water, safe roads and structures — all of them mainly realized through public procurements for which ISO standards are required from private and public entities to win the tenders, as preconditions of legal requests to participate in public procurements). The adequacy of the infrastructure in turn benefits the individual via ac-
cess to quality health and environment, education and means for cultural expression and enrichment. The LQI enhances our decision-making capacity in the management of risks to life and health. It brings into sharp focus the choices and trade-offs we have to make between extension of life and creation of productive wealth, which at the end of the day is totally related to quality of procedures in private and public entities, as well as to quality of products and services we realize, trade and consume.
Table 2. - Relations between doing business and life quality index (Table generated by the author of the article using figures from primary resources)
Country Doing Business Index Life Quality Index
United Kingdom 94 180.25
Germany 85 199.70
Estonia 84 N/A
Ireland 83 171.92
Austria 79 192.40
Latvia 78 134.33
Portugal 77 181.18
France 73 173.56
Netherlands 72 192.40
Slovenia 71 175.93
Romania 63 141.61
Croatia 60 172.39
Montenegro 54 N/A
Turkey 45 137.31
Serbia 41 138.26
Albania 3 N/A
Graphic 1. Relations between life quality index and doing business index (Graphic generated by the author of the article using figures from primary resources)
4. Relations between ISO 9001 certificates, doing business index and life quality
As per data, facts and figures gathered by the Doing Business Reports (2014, 2015 and 2016) and ISO Executive Summary (2014) it is evident that EU western countries like United Kingdom, Germany, etc, South East countries like Austria etc, have higher doing business index and higher number of ISO 9001 certificates issued. In these countries citizens enjoy high life quality and there is no any significant dispute from business clients and public generally for quality of products and services (Life Quality Index — Germany 199.7, Austria 192.40, United Kingdom 180.25 [7].
Most of Balkan countries are in middle and bottom of
the list for doing business index and ISO certificates issued (Table 1 at Appendixes). In these countries citizens enjoy a middle level oflife quality and significant dispute from business clients and public generally for quality ofproducts and services have been reported currently (Life Quality Index Romania 146.13, Bulgaria141.61, Serbia 138,26, etc [7].
In Balkan countries, besides the fact that some improvements have been done regarding to the institutions, infrastructure and legislation of quality, there is still a lack of understanding of the situation generally in public and between authorities and as a result, poor situation regarding the quality institutions, quality infrastructure and quality legislation and regulations spreads through the business climate [8].
Table 3. - Relations between doing business,% of ISO 9001 certificates issued and life quality index (Table generated by the author of the article using figures from primary resources)
Country Doing Business Index ISO 9001% Certificates
United Kingdom 94 0.019
Germany 85 0.019
Estonia 84 0.013
Ireland 83 0.011
Austria 79 0.01
Latvia 78 0.01
Portugal 77 0.01
France 73 0.01
Netherlands 72 0.01
Slovenia 71 0.01
Romania 63 0.027
Croatia 60 0.019
Montenegro 54 0.006
Turkey 45 0.003
Serbia 41 0.008
Albania 3 0.0008
Graphic 2. Relations between doing business and% of ISO 9001 certificates issued (Graphic generated by the author of the article using figures from primary resources)
Conclusions and recommendations
1. There are strong relations between quality management/ISO standards and doing business climate.
2. There are sustain relations between doing business climate and life quality.
3. Improving quality management system/respecting ISO standards parallel with doing business regulations and doing business climate improves life quality of citizens.
4. Balkan countries, recently joined the international community of ISO standards and being part of World Bank Reports on Doing Business, for years have
had multiple problems regarding quality's institutions, quality infrastructure, doing business and life quality.
5. Balkan countries recently are facing problems that affect the development and performance of businesses, development and economic growth, sustainable development and life quality.
6. Improving quality's institutions, quality infrastructure and doing business climate in Balkans will have a positive impact on increasing economic growth and improving the quality of life of citizens within the Balkan's integration into the Europe and wider.
APPENDIXES
Figure 1. What Doing Business continues to cover and what it is adding and changing at the 2016 Report (http://www.doingbusiness.org/reports/global-reports/2016)
Average year-on-year improvement in distance to frontier score
25
Europe S Sub-Saharan Middle East EaïtAaaâ Latin America South Asia OECD CentralAsia Africa & North Africa Pacific & Caribbean high income
DB2005 DB2006 DB2007
D32003 DB2009 DB2010
DB2Q11 DB2G12 DB2G1]
DB2014 DB2015 DB2016
Figure 2. Improvement in business regulation over time (Europe and Central Asia has made a substantially bigger improvement than any other region) (http://www.doingbusiness.org/reports/global-reports/2016)
References:
1. Doing Business 2016, Measuring Regulatory Quality and Efficiency, October 27, 2015, World Bank Group.
2. Rose, Kenneth H. Project Quality Management: Why, What and How. Fort Lauderdale, Florida: Ross Publishing J. P. 41.
3. Ceko Enriko. Quality management tools. Monographic. 2013.
4. ISO Survey Executive Summary. 2014.
5. Hicks, J. R. (1939). "The foundation of welfare economics". The Economic Journal 49 (196): 696-712. doi:10.2307/2225023.
6. Nathwani, Jatin S.; Pandey, Mahesh D.; Lind, Niels C. (2009). Engineering Decisions for Life Quality: How Safe is Safe Enough?. Springer.
7. http://www.numbeo.com/quality-of-life/rankings_by_country.jsp
8. Ceko Enriko. Problems of quality legislation and quality infrastructure in Albania during 2000-2015, Third International Scientific Conference of Akademia Profesionale e Biznesit. April 2015.
