The Importance of Quality Management System and The Ways to Increase Its Awareness in Georgia (on the example of neighboring countries)

Abstract

In today's business environment, high quality products and services are vital for organizations to survive and maintain competitive advantage. Implementation of quality management system is still a challenge for Georgian entrepreneurs. According to the data of the National Statistics Service of Georgia on 31.12.2021, there are 183,300 operating organizations registered in Georgia, and only 176 organizations are certified by the ISO 9001 standard, i.e. approx. 0.1% (ISO Survey, 2021), which shows that awareness of the importance of the quality management system is extremely low in our country. Georgian entrepreneurs are less informed about the requirements needed to enter export markets, among which one of the most important requirements is quality assurance. The paper aims to review the existing experience in the direction of measures supporting the awareness of the quality management system of the business sphere of Azerbaijan and Russia and to develop specific recommendations based on their analysis, taking into account the reality of Georgia. Keywords: Quality management, principles of quality management, quality management system awareness, ISO 9000 series standards.