How do standards become standard?

@strawberryfieldsforever
Shall I give a joke answer or a real answer?

@mur2501
Hard to differentiate, when it's you!

I already got a joke!
So, go on, say whatever you had in mind!

@strawberryfieldsforever
well reality is a big joke.
Anyway, standards are usually decided and implemented by the government agencies. In case of India the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) is the national standards body of India. As well as individual government department and military also have their standards body. All of this is true for all the countries.

Now this national standards body are members of various international standards organisations like ISO, IEEE, ISOC, etc to achieve common standards and procedures throughout the world.

The internal working of standard setting bodies (national and international) can vary alot but mostly they have board or committee members who are expert in the particular field the standardization is to be done in, mostly these are professors, researchers and also government administrators. For example the executive committees of BIS consist of government officials, profs from IITs, IIMs, IISC, etc as well as representatives from BHEL, ISRO, Indian Railways, etc.

Research and technical querying of the standards to be implemented are usually done by the national universities (IITs, IISC, etc) and the government research labs. If the committee decides that a standard specification is fully ready and necessary then it is passed hence it gets implemented by the government.

@strawberryfieldsforever
I thought they would have taught you about industry standards in MBA

@mur2501

Yes, they did teach us about industry standards and network effects in the tech industry!
Nothing about BIS, SI units, etc.

Also, I was asking my question in the general context, about something qualitative, like English Grammar, driving on one side of the road, maple syrup on pancakes (😂), etc.

But, the info, you gave me also helped! 👍

@strawberryfieldsforever
I don't know about Maple Syrup on pancakes but English grammar and languages structure are historically based on comprehensive dictionaries like Oxford English Dictionary, Cambridge English Dictionary, etc.
This is also how American English and British English deviated as the Merriam-Webster Dictionary published in 1831 changed the traditional British spellings like colour, centre, waggon, etc to color, center, wagon...

For the direction of driving on road, traditionally in the days of horses the riders would keep to left as then they can use their right hand for using the sword if some threat comes in way. Now there is a belief that during the French Revolutions the Frenchies changed the road direction from left side to right side as it was a remnant of the pass which was rule by cruel kings and royalty.