Best reason(s) for having policies?

There have been two key arguments in favour of policies when seeking upper-level support for their implementation:

1. Legal compliance. Some policies are required by the law and the consequences for not having them can be grave.

2. Industry compliance. Other policies can either be required by the industry or can be a pre-condition for having a place at the table. For example, we have suppliers who will not provide us with products unless we can demonstrate the competence of our engineers to fit their products in a way that guarantees that their good name won't be sullied by shoddy fitting. Their requisite evidence includes having certain policies in place with respect to training and management. Similarly, we have customers whose sites won't allow us to access our customer's location without evidence that we conduct business in a certain way: evidential to this are relevant policies.

Of course, *having* a policy and *abiding by* a policy aren't mutually guaranteed.

Thanks, Robey.

Thanks, Robey.