Moses, Mount Sinai and 21st Century Soap Salesmen

The serious study of history includes seeing and interpreting it through different disciplines. Therefore, an archaeologist and an economist and then a sociologist would all see history through the lens of their own interests. One way to look at history is through systematic sets of laws that divide one period from another. Therefore, we can study and correctly conclude that the Code of Hammurabi (from around 1770 BC in Babylon), the Magna Carta (the foundation of English law from 1215), and the Nuremberg Laws of Race (1933) all signaled important milestones in human history.

Western culture owes much to Moses receiving the Ten Commandments on Mt. Sinai around 1240 BC. Three major world religions point back to that pivotal event. The cleaning industry experienced an event that will be viewed in the future just as pivotal as what happened on Mt. Sinai.

The International Sanitary Supply Association was originally chartered for manufacturers and distributors of chemicals and equipment used in the cleaning industry. The very first time I learned about the association, a distributor proudly told me it was the trade association of soap salesmen. Founded in 1923 by Albert Richter who wanted to trade information between distributors around the US, the ISSA became a global trade Association in 1966.

I mopped floors at five star hotels in Miami Beach starting in 1974 and launched my first janitorial company in 1977. No internet (Al Gore had not invented the world wide web yet), my library at the University I was attending was all I had as a resource and everything I could find out about my new business and my new career, I learned from my sanitary supply distributor who was an ISSA member.

How does a truly great commercial cleaning company operate? Hiring and training and supervising my staff, the best way to deal with service defects, what constitutes quality service and hundreds of issues I had to figure out all by myself with the help of my supply company. What I needed was an operating standard to compare what I was doing with what was considered the best practices of my industry. Nothing of the sort existed so it was my best guess based on what other industries did.


The single most important event in the janitorial industry was the publication of the Cleaning Industry Management Standard (CIMS) by the ISSA. Not the voice of God or even a modern day Moses but the best practices of our industry agreed on by some of the best-organized janitorial companies in the country. A collaborative effort by the best minds of our industry organized by the ISSA, several years in the making but then the most amazing move by the Association is that CIMS is public and available to the entire industry free through the ISSA. (http://www.issa.com/?m=download )

CIMS is a standard for us to go by, a framework from which we can assemble the management structures of our businesses and a way for clients and prospects to know they are dealing with the best in the industry. CIMS is how the best companies organize their businesses spelled out in detail. For the very first time the janitorial industry is able to point to a set of practices that constitute how a company should operate.

The CIMS program is not simple and certification is a major endeavor but the results are worth every single bit of effort. There are currently 116 companies that have achieved CIMS Certification with 92 opting for an additional Green Building designation, which provides for the US Green Building Council’s LEED program.

Every janitorial and cleaning service owner needs to have a copy of the CIMS document and build around this standard. Certification may be a long way off in the future or maybe not at all but the standards are sound and provide a yardstick for managerial excellence.