This month marks the 100th anniversary of the first private business certification in Bohemia. But there are still businesses that care little about having their management systems certified according to international standards. Their managers tend to believe that the certificates are just excessive paperwork that increases administration costs. Petr Šesták, executive and technical director at the Czech office of the leading international certification network Bureau Veritas Certification, talks to The Prague Post about the positives of having corporate management systems certified and describes how the concept of certification has developed over the years.

Your company performed the first business management inspection in Bohemia in January 1907. What exactly was it?

Bureau Veritas made the very first inspection here in the then-territory of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Unfortunately, details about the inspection have not been archived. We know, however, that the inspection was managed from Trieste, Italy. The subject of the inspection may well have concerned the ship shafts that were produced in the Škoda factory in Plzeň. At that time, inspections were carried out only by very few authorities and mainly focused on the industries that supplied shipbuilders.

How has business management certification developed here since then?

Is business management certification now used more to boost a company's image or improve company efficiency?

It's true that management system certifications are, to some extent, used to boost corporate image. It's been happening, and it will continue. And it's good because it proves that possessing a certificate really stands as a good reference for the company. The certification brings about additional costs, so companies expect visible benefits. And the very act of certification can increase the efficiency of the corporate management processes.

Bureau Veritas Certification offers services to local companies through Czech auditors. Does this mean that foreign experts are not needed for such jobs?

Nowadays, we are able to provide the whole portfolio of our services and to cover the needs of our Czech customers by Czech auditors. Nevertheless, we can still rely on the international network of our auditors in some cases. Audits according to AS 9100 standards in the aviation industry stand as an example.

Apart from certification, do certification companies help businesses implement particular management systems?

Bureau Veritas Certification does not offer consulting or advisory services, especially in the field of management systems. This would go against the rules for accredited certification that we offer to our customers.

How do you ensure that your certificates are worth anything?

It's simple. We have to stick to every single rule for accredited management system certification. We also need to make sure that our auditors and processes maintain high quality.

How would you explain that companies certified by Bureau Veritas can still produce faulty products? Is it a sign that people still tend to prefer lower prices to higher quality and they do not look whether a product has quality certificates if it is cheap?

Yes. There are customers who can get along with only average or lower quality in exchange for lower price. Many of them come to their senses when they realize how much they paid for "nonquality," and that the purchase did not meet their expectations.

In the fall, Bureau Veritas opened an International Certification Center in Prague. How will this move affect the Czech market?

Above all, we can quickly respond to our customers' requirements when they demand certificates with foreign accreditation after we verify that the customer did fulfill all criteria for obtaining such a certificate. Also, it is a signal abroad that the certification process here is on par with other countries.

Bureau Veritas charges higher prices for its services than some smaller local agencies. Does that hamper your ability to lure small and midsize companies?

We're doing all we can to make sure that we do not discriminate against small customers by making our services financially inaccessible. We try to adjust our pricing policies for this purpose. On the other hand, we can never go with a price as low as small certification companies do.

What is your New Year's resolution?

It would be great if the overall quality of certification services in the Czech Republic further increased. This would help further boost the prestige of our sector and also faith in certification in general.

Want your top manager to answer our 10 Questions? Send a message to František Bouc at fbouc@praguepost.com