In late October, longtime Baldrige examiner Miriam Kmetzo traveled to Suzhou, China, to attend and speak at the 6th Quality Forum for Academics and Innovation.

Kmetzo gave a presentation at a session that featured four quality award programs in the international arena: the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, the Deming Prize, the EFQM (formerly called the European Foundation for Quality Management) Excellence Award, and the China Quality Award (CQA). The latter, according to Kmetzo, is fashioned after the Baldrige Award and administered by the China Association for Quality.

I recently caught up with Kmetzo to learn about her experience at the forum. Following is the interview.

Christine Schaefer: What information did you share, and what did you learn from others, during the session where you presented?

Miriam Kmetzo: I spoke on impacts of the Baldrige [Performance Excellence] Program and how the program has helped our nation’s award recipients improve their performance and the U.S. economy as a whole.

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