The fallout continues from the exposure of the US TAG 176’s dominance by consultants. As we mentioned the other day, Oriel Stat-a-Matrix trainer Julie Congress is refusing stakeholder input, despite her obligations to do so under ANSI, ISO and WTO rules (and, possibly, US law — we’re still checking on that one.)
Now her boss, Oriel CEO Alan Marash, has weighed in. And naturally his view isn’t kind to ISO 9001 end users, either.
In response to one Oxebridge reader who wrote indicating his disappointment with Congress, Marash responded:
So what I am hearing from you is that you don’t know Julie or her actions and that you just sent out an e-mail bashing somebody without knowing what they are doing. I think the US TAG would be stronger if they didn’t have to waste time dealing with nonsense like you raise. Please never communicate with me again.
Marash also pointed out that Congress is a “trainer/consultant for my firm and she does a wonderful job for us,” but that “she does not represent us on the US TAG.” Technically this is true, since all TAG members are supposed to represent themselves as individuals, or their industries in general, and cannot represent any specific organization. This is a rule that is entirely ignored, as we’ve seen, and Congress openly co-markets both her role in Oriel as well as on the US TAG, linking the two at least contextually. But the point was not to allege that Oriel Stat-a-Matrix was abusing the TAG, but that Congress is doing so, and Oriel would be a benefactor from that.
(Oriel’s Executive VP Bob Marash has been a TAG member in the past, so there’s enough connective tissue there to raise eyebrows anyway.)
With Congress we see the consultant wing of the TAG reacting in a hostile manner to stakeholders they don’t like, and later being supported by her boss at Oriel, who then repeats the exact same sentiment. Usually, if an employee or contractor “goes rogue” the employer would distance themselves quickly, but Alan Marash is standing by his woman. God bless ‘im.
This is not a problem that is going away any time soon, and — as we saw two days ago — will become a major headache for ANSI and its TAGs if it doesn’t get its house in order.
Meanwhile, we are actively reaching out to any US-based consultants who feel they have been harmed by anti-competitive actions by any US TAG member, or if they have been harassed, bullied or otherwise alienated either from participating in the TAG, providing feedback, or had their own marketing efforts somehow impeded by TAG members. Click here to reach out.
Christopher Paris is the founder and VP Operations of Oxebridge. He has over 30 years’ experience implementing ISO 9001 and AS9100 systems, and helps establish certification and accreditation bodies with the ISO 17000 series. He is a vocal advocate for the development and use of standards from the point of view of actual users. He is the writer and artist of THE AUDITOR comic strip, and is currently writing a pulp novella called DR. CUBA.
