The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is a network of the national standards institutes of 157 countries, on the basis of one member per country, with a Central Secretariat in Geneva, Switzerland, that coordinates the system. ISO is a non-governmental organization that forms a bridge between the public and private sectors. On the one hand, many of its member institutes are part of the governmental structure of their countries, or are mandated by their government. On the other hand, other members have their roots uniquely in the private sector, having been set up by national partnerships of industry associations. Accordingly it can be argued that, for interventionist economies, ISO aids in establishing a consensus to be reached on solutions that meet both the requirements of business and the dictates of regulatory intervention. Questions: Please choose some organization with which you are familiar as context for answering the following questions. Q1. Regarding the organization of your choice, what is the single most useful ISO standard that you might expect to apply to that organization and its line of business? Why? Q2. Note that standardization is a classic and controversial tradeoff between interoperability and flexibility; it increases the number of potential interfaces while on the other hand reducing choices to consumers. With this tradeoff in mind, please consider and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of making ISO certification a criterion in your organization's source selection process.