On the industry side, credentialing can have great success in terms of raising the level of actual professionalism in an industry.
At the same time, on the consumer-buyer-client side, successful credentialing in the US in many industries has been more difficult to achieve.
On the buyer side, credentialing in general has been diminishing in importance in the US for a long time. It has come to matter less and less to the buying public, and perhaps more so to the business-buyer, whether a business-person has a particular credential or not.
There are many reasons for this situation, it is complex, and it can be conquered; all of which I will address in later posts.
Credentialing in general is a lot more successful in many, perhaps almost all, countries than it is in the US.
Occupational Honorifics: Over a long span of social-cultural development we have arrived at this era in the US where we barely use even the basic honorifics such as "Mr", "Mrs", "Miss" or "Ms" ; even in formal situations. I have no complaint about that; it is who we are as a nation. [I do have a complaint about the increasing demise of plain ol' common courtesy.]
But a byproduct of our social norms in these matters is to make credentialing more difficult here: Formal arrogance, superiority, "better than", and elitism are just not part of our way. We don't cotton to inferior-superior, subordinate-boss, or "(lowly) student" relating to "(elevated) teacher". We question our superiors (recall the motto, "Question Authority"); and we don't relate well to those who claim superiority.
Credentialing here in the US is a quite different game than it is in most other countries. Being successful at it here requires different kinds of strategies. And much of the value of credentialing here is left on the table (I'll be writing more on this at a later time).
In contrast to the US, credentialing in many places is very successful; in some places the predominant form of address is to use even the occupational honorific (doesn't even require a profession, just an occupation); for example in some countries, the standard form of address for a teacher with perhaps no college and maybe not even a credential, would be the honorific, "Teacher Jones".
Credentials on Business Cards: In the US, if we see initials after the personal name on a business card it's a tell, even without seeing the location information, that this is most likely a person doing business outside of the US.
The appropriate credentials for business card protocol varies by country; in some, only advanced academic or professional degrees (PhD, MD) are seen on cards. At the other end of the spectrum, the protocol in some places is to list not only all/any academic credentials, but also any other type of credential that may possibly be relevant.
