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April 20, 2006
Re-vitalizing the Baldrige award
Yesterday afternoon, the Vice President handed out the 2005 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Awards at the Hilton Washington Hotel. This should have been a major event. However, outside of a few (very few) local news stories touting one of the winners, there was absolutely no press coverage. It is not as if the issue isn't important. As the Vice President remarked:
If anyone has doubts about America's ability to lead in the global economy, I would simply ask them to look at the Baldrige criteria, and look at the enterprises that have won this award. This year, as before, the Board of Examiners has identified a group following very diverse missions, but powered by the same basic qualities of teamwork, a problem-solving mind set, impatience with the status quo, a focus on the customer, and an ethic of responsibility and trust throughout the enterprise.
The National Innovation Initiative called for the creation of a National Innovation prize (although that provision was not included in the National Innovation Act legislation) The Baldrige National Quality Award has been attempting to turn itself into a broad business excellence award by infusing innovation into the criteria for the award. As the 2006 Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence states:
In 2005, the Baldrige Criteria were significantly revised to address the focused demands on senior leaders, the need for long-term (as well as short-term) organizational sustainability, the great challenges of innovating organizations (not just technology), the difficulty of executing new processes and strategic plans, and the benefits of improved alignment of all aspects of your management system with your results measurements.
That change has not yet seemed to taken hold. I think a big part of the lack of attention is in the name and perception. It is still viewed as a "quality" award - something left over from the 1980s. The first year of the award in 1988, there were 45 applicants in the manufacturing category (according to the factsheet). The number of applicants has never exceeded that peak (there was only one other year, 1990). In the services category, the peak was 1991 with 21 applications. In 2005, there were 6 applicants in the service category - and the previous year there were 5 applicants and no award given. There was only 1 -- yes, one -- application in 2005 in the manufacturing category.
(It should be noted that the non-business categories of education and health care (added in 1999) have grown steadily. But both of which have their own separate set of criteria. The education criteria are focused on student achievement and the health care criteria are about patient care.)
Clearly, quality - at least in the business community - is old hat. It is the entry fee, not the key to winning the race. As I have noted before, the nature of the competitive challenges has shifted. And the business community knows that.
It would not take much to turn the Baldrige Award into the Baldrige National Innovation and Performance Award. But that will take a focus from the top. I fear that this focus is not there. This is the second year in a row where the Vice-President has presented the awards.)
While we are debating competitiveness, we should include an expansion of this proven program into something of more relevance to today's issues. Otherwise, if it follows current trends, the Baldrige Award will slowly and subtly shift from our premier business competitiveness award to begin a non-profit performance award. That is not necessarily a bad outcome; having such an award is good. It is just not what the original purpose of the award. It would also leave a large gap in our competitiveness policy - just at a time when we need such an award the most.
Posted by Ken Jarboe at April 20, 2006 11:20 AM
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