Business Initiative Directions Explained

Business Initiative Directions
Foundation:	1986
Location:	Madrid, Spain.
Key People:	Jose E. Prieto, President and CEO
Industry:	Vanity awards

Business Initiative Directions (BID) is a Madrid-based organisation selling what the Center for Investigative Reporting and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) have called "meaningless international awards", more widely known as "vanity awards".^[1]

History and people

Jose E. Prieto is the president and CEO of Business Initiative Directions.^[2] He founded the company in the US and Spain in 1986, after which it expanded to Europe. The company says it is focused on the principles of the Total Quality Management movement.^[3]

Awards

BID market a number of awards:

• Century International Quality ERA Award (CQE)
• International Arch of Europe Award
• International Quality Crown Award
• International Star Award for Quality (ISAQ) (one was offered to a school in Swaziland, which BID described as a "company")^[4]
• International Star for Leadership in Quality Award (ISLQ)^{[5] [6]}
• World Quality Commitment Award^[7]
• WQC International Star Award

Criticism

The Center for Investigative Reporting and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) have called the awards "meaningless".^[1]

Sri Lanka's Honorary Consul in Spain said that BID was possibly a scam company. The Spanish Consulate in Mumbai stated BID was a fraudulent company.^{[8] [9]}

Botswana's Consumer Watchdog reported that the "so-called 'World Quality Commitment Convention', run by 'Business Initiative Directions' is remarkably similar to the equally ridiculous Bizz Awards scam we exposed some months ago."^[10]

External links

• Invitation, advertising, award and certificate for a Turkish awardee.

Notes and References

1. Web site: What Price Honor?. Occrp.org. 10 October 2014. 29 July 2017.
2. Web site: BID – Business Initiative Directions. bid-org.com. 30 July 2017.
3. Web site: BID History. bid-org.com. 30 July 2017.
4. News: Dlamini. Thembeka. Salesian High targeted for awards scam. Swazi Observer. 28 July 2015.
5. Web site: International Star for Leadership in Quality Award (ISLQ) -. islq.org. 30 July 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20170803103309/http://www.islq.org/. 3 August 2017. dead.
6. Web site: International Star for Leadership in Quality. Business Initiative Directions. bid-paris.com. 30 July 2017.
7. Web site: World Quality Commitment. Business Initiative Directions. bid-quality.com. 30 July 2017.
8. Web site: Debt-ridden, loss-making SEC pays for dubious award . . Charundi Panagoda . September 16, 2012 . August 16, 2017 . In verifying the authenticity of the company, BID, we inform that after out investigation, the data matches except for the phone number ensuring that BID is a fraudulent company..
9. Web site: SEC buys fake award . . August 16, 2017 . The Spanish Consulate in Mumbai said BID was a fraudulent company and the Honorary Consul for Sri Lanka in Barcelona Agustin Llanas called BID a spam company that sells awards..
10. Web site: Consumer Watchdog: The Voice – Consumer's Voice. consumerwatchdogbw.blogspot.co.uk. 30 July 2017.