In 2005, Alka Jarvis replaced Jack West as chair of the US Technical Advisory Group to TC 176, the body that authors the ISO 9000 family of standards. West was forced out due to term limits, and Jarvis won the seat in an unopposed election, after having been nominated in a closed-door meeting attended by West himself.
The Fellowship of the Ring
Under TAG rules, a “nominating committee” selects a single candidate for the position, and then holds an election whereby the person runs unopposed. The committee selection process is secret, and the meeting is closed to all other TAG members. While an opposing candidate could possibly run as a write-in, the TAG procedures don’t allow enough time for a person to mount such a campaign, nor gather support, so the hand-picked candidate wins the election in a predetermined landslide.
The profession’s dutiful press, in the form of Quality Digest, ran an announcement after the nomination, featuring this misleading claim:
West is stepping down after nine years of leading the committee and Jarvis is the only person nominated for the position.
QD failed to disclose anything about the TAG’s procedures ensuring that only a single candidate be officially nominated.
The Two Towers
It is no secret that West did not want to relinquish the role. He had turned the Chair position into a lucrative post-career ka-ching machine, using the TAG credential to publish an endless stream of books on ISO 9001, while making keynote speaker appearances, and pursuing a consulting career with Silver Fox Advisors out of Texas. So when he was term-limited, it seemed appropriate he might find someone who wouldn’t pose a threat to that blingstream, and enable him to carry on, unhindered.
And so: Alka Jarvis of Cisco, whose low-key temperament and near invisibility prior to the role began to make sense. I predicted early that she would never publish anything that would compete with the Jack West bookmachine, and I was right. I predicted she would never represent the US TAG at conferences, nor make keynote speeches, and I was right.
“Missing: Jarvis” — Google gets it right.
To date, however, West continues to headline ISO 9001 events hosted by ASQ and the annual ISO 9000 Conference. His articles continue to get churned out, while Jarvis has written nothing. In fact, her last published work on anything related to ISO 9000 appears to have been her 1995 book on the now-defunct ISO 9000-3 standard.
In 2012, she did get co-billing alongside West, Lorri Hunt and Nigel Croft in a fluff piece about the new 9001:2015 standard published by ASQ. But only West, Hunt and Croft have made public appearances… and lots of them. Ms. Jarvis, meanwhile, has been absolutely absent from the public sphere.
So absent, in fact, that a Google search of “alka jarvis” and “tc 176” produces only 255 hits, while “jack west” and “tc 176” produces 3,500 hits. And many of the hits regarding Jarvis just resolve back to the Oxebridge site you’re reading now, as ours is one of the only outlets that even mentions Jarvis, even in passing.
Return of the King
Now, with Jarvis herself now term-limited, rumors are rumbling about a return to the West leadership, as rules do not prohibit West from reclaiming power. Alternatively, Lorri Hunt is rumored for the hand-picked slot, as Hunt has been West’s top toady for decades, and is a frequent co-presenter at events alongside West.
What we can count on is that the Jarvis reign will go down as an utter disaster. During that period, the US failed to convince the ISO member nations to vote against the 9001:2015 DIS, despite overwhelming criticism from the US aerospace and automotive industries, thus dooming the planet to another 20 years of a standard mired in 1950’s style, antiquated thinking. Under Jarvis, the US further alienated itself with other world representatives, while the UK — through clever maneuvering by its BSI behemoth — gained control of nearly the entire narrative over 9001. During the Jarvis years, the USA lost a massive 19,700 ISO 9001 certificates, including a four year stretch of back-to-back losses from 2007 through 2010.
The inevitable return of West (either directly or through the Hunt proxy) will ensure that the flow of books continue apace from these privateers, while US reputation within ISO continues to wither away. We will remain an ineffectual country, obsessed only with using TC 176 positions to get publishing deals and keynote slots, rather than to represent the nation’s public and industry stakeholders.
So let’s see, in the coming months, how right I am. Will it be Hunt? Or just West 2.o?
Christopher Paris is the founder and VP Operations of Oxebridge. He has over 35 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 the DR. CUBA pulp novel series. Visit www.drcuba.world
