Raising the Bar

PM: Are you finding that, for the end-users, this is an issue with them at this point? Are they calling you and saying, "How do I know that these products are safe?"

JD: First of all, we've been having conversations with our clients over the past five years. We have an office in China, we're on factory audits and safety testing programs with many of our clients directly. What we have been doing is working very closely with certain supplier partners that have been very well-versed and very good at what they do. So now what we are doing is coming together to set those standards. I think it's going to help every client, and I can tell you right now, there are clients of BDA who are extremely excited about the possibility of having QCA accredit every supplier in this industry. I don't think that will happen. Quite frankly, it's going to be tough for suppliers ... to get certified under QCA.

TG: Jay said this is a tough audit. And the reason why is because we want to set the bar at a [high] level. We want ... to look back at the levels we set and say these levels exceed what is required. We don't want to lower our standard to the lowest common denominator, we want to raise it.

AE: They are all achievable though. They are very achievable. We spent a lot of time going through the compliance aspect of this with a lot of people [who have] a good, solid knowledge base. We really looked at all the different types of programs out there, and really looked at best practices across the board. So this is modeled after many programs that were [already] in place. We wanted to be sure that it was achievable, but in order for this to have value it has to be something that differentiates us from just anybody who can set up a table and sell products in the industry.