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We just can't close the books on Iceberg 9000, the topic of editorials in our February and October issues. It would seem that two columns on the topic would be enough, but I am getting too much information pipelined to me to let the subject die. So here we go again.
To bring you up to date, in February I told about a dream I had (obviously a thinly veiled literary ploy) about a European quality standard called Iceberg 9000. In this dream, Iceberg 9000 was written deliberately to be a nontariff barrier, and two American firms, Company Alpha and Company Bravo, each dealt with the standard in its own way. Company Alpha put out poorly performing products and continued to do so, but it meticulously documented its procedures to win certification. Company Bravo faked a trail of backdated paperwork to win certification.
The October editorial carried the story a step further. It told of Company Charley, a small entrepreneurial American firm which has a hard time dealing with Iceberg 9000 but is sure to be driven out of business by a new standard called Certainly European, or CE for short.
Before we go on, let me say a word about each of these companies. Take a typical Company Alpha, for example. These firms follow a pattern characterized by what is termed the concrete life-jacket syndrome.
Suppose Alpha builds concrete life preservers, and anyone who goes into the water wearing one is sure to drown. If the production of these life jackets is documented properly, they can meet a quality standard. In the words of one reader who...