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This is a call to action for all quality professionals, for Baldrige winners, for Baldrige applicants, for Baldrige examiners, for state quality award winners, for state quality award program directors and their staff, and anyone who values the impact that the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award and the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program has had on our nation and the thousands of companies and organizations that have benefited from benchmarking against the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence.
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We are all aware that there is national belt tightening underway in our country. The recent debate over increasing the debt demonstrated that when it comes to financial planning we are standing at the abyss. The proposed list of cuts is staggering and evidently will impact everyone... except those making the suggestions.
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Comments
Cost Will Sink Us!
Very difficult decisions are before the citizens and government of the United States. This call for action is typical of the underlying fault that has brought us to the brink of the abyss.
No one will suggest that quality is not important. Nor will no one suggest that research to improve composites or solar cells is unimportant or of feeding the hungry. The question is whether this is a proper role of government, Federal or state.
Consider this “TOP FIVE” article by Amis, et al., “Why Management System Standards Add Value”. The Harvard Business School research referenced clearly states that the efficiency of an organization is improved with implementation. The company’s overall condition improves and its financial health improves.
If a program such ISO, TS or Baldrige, adds value to a company, is it a proper role of government to pay for the implementation of the program?
I will emphatically state that the answer is – NO! It is not the role of government, either Federal or state, to in effect play favorites in business. Government has no business being in business in a free and open capitalist society. It is an inappropriate act for the government or any government funded agency to take tax dollars for one business owner, its employees and customers and then invest those dollars into the business of a competitor.
In a free and open capitalist society, a business that invests in its future by implementing any of the value adding management system standards will be more competitive.
Should a business choose not to improve, it will fail. The demand void will be filled by a more efficient business. In this case, the customer benefits by having products or services that are more effective and efficient. This is the win-win model that the United States was founded on.
Cost of the Baldrige
The last time I looked, the Baldrige was an award that you had to apply for. The Gummint wasn't choosing who to give Baldrige money to - Individual companies decided whether to apply. If a company decided that winning a Baldrige could be an advantage competitively, they could try for it. While it is true that an award from the government would be the kiss of death in some circles, the public policy justification was that it might nudge companies to be better.
I guess nowadays there are those who feel that there should only be private policies and no public policies. They would like to live by the private policies of the big banks, the insurance companies and Wall Street. They don't want to be encumbered by the public policies of the SEC, EPA, or FDA. (Did I get them all?)
As for the proper role of government - Would IBM have built the internet, or was it proper for ARPA to get it going? How much funding went to the aircraft industry, even after WWII, in the guise of DOD spending? Was that picking winners and losers? There are, of course, things which appear to be counter-examples. Decoding the human genome happened faster when a private company decided to do it, but how many of the people who pulled it off got NIH funding earlier in their careers? Was that a proper role for government?
The American economy won't shrivel and die if the Baldrige goes away. We have plenty of forces at play that will kill it with or without the Baldrige.
Baldrige
I am a Quality Director at a small rural hospital. Programs from the government are onerous, most of the time. CMS and others overwhelm us with unfunded mandates, few of which truely impact quality of care. Having said that, I know that most folks go to work, do their job (more or less) and want a paycheck at the end of the pay period....period. Without incentive to be better, few companies get better. If those incentives need funding from the government, so be it. I know that the Baldrige and the State programs associated with it have trnasformed many companies and inspired many others to try and improve. I only wish the government would have more closely studied the Baldrige model and improved along with other companies. I think quality improvement programs will survive without Baldrige, if they have shown themselves to be value-added. There are so many other wasteful spending programs that the government could cut, but I am sure the idiots WE elected to congress are looking for any program to cut that doesn't affect some pork barrel project of their own. I am also sure quality never has and never will enter into their thought process. I think a great quality improvement project for the citizenery would be to oust the congress and elect qualified, thoughtful citizens, willing to work together for the good of the country, not just those who have money and friends in high places. Talk about value-added!
Who is John Galt
For those familiar with Atlas Shrugged, the Baldrige Award may be too much like the "State Science Institute". And Deming was quite skeptical of the push for Baldrige. (Deming and Ayn Rand in the same paragraph - hm sounds dangerous).
Baldrige Improves America
I respectfully disagree with your perspective, Michael. While generally I support your position that there are many federal (and state/local) programs unworthy of funding, in my opinion, the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program doesn't fit into that category. Baldrige is not just about winning an award -- it's not a beauty contest where the ultimate prize is a trophy. Rather, it's about making enterprises more cost effective, more productive, more competitive, and more capable of achieving and sustaining better outcomes.
It is true that there is a recognition component to the program, but the Baldrige program -- and the network of 33 state and local Baldrige-based programs across the US (I manage one of them) -- are about improving academic outcomes in our schools, improving clinical outcomes in our hospitals, improving societal outcomes in our nonprofits and governmental agencies (yes, may public sector agencies are using Baldrige to eliminate waste and improve results), and improve results in our businesses. Indeed, the work of this program strengthens tens of thousands of organizations across the US, and such a "public good" is EXACTLY what government is intended to do. In addition, an independent study showed that the Baldrige program had a 200-to-1 economic return for the United States: every $1 invested by taxpayers in this program yields a return of better than $200. Not many governmental agencies can point to that value. In addition, the Baldrige Program is a unique public-private partnership, partially funded by private sector investment through the Baldrige Foundation. Finally, the Baldrige program relies on over 600 volunteers to carry out its mission -- leaders and professionals from all over the country and from all types of organizations. Not only do they learn what drives performance excellence in organizations, but they give their time, talents, and expertise to helping America improve.
The Baldrige program helps organizations create and sustain jobs, achieve high levels of customer and workforce satisfaction, improve and sustain economic and societal outcomes, and improve the quality of our country's products, services, and social outcomes. I can't think of better reasons to maintain funding for such a powerful American program.
Brian Lassiter
President, Minnesota Council for Quality;
Vice Chair, Alliance of Performance Excellence; and
14-year (volunteer) Baldrige Examiner
Government Should Fund Baldrige
One of the responsibilities
of our national government is to maintain standards – like weights and measures
- for all of us to follow. These standards make it easier for us to do our
business, whatever that may be. I see the Baldrige Criteria and Framework as
one of those standards – a standard of performance excellence (or performance
management if you like that term better). One thing for sure, Baldrige is not
just an award. It is a process for any organization to use to improve their
performance. The award process provides valuable feedback for improvement and
provides role models of excellence (the award recipients) for all of us to
examine. Baldrige was created to help strengthen U.S. competitiveness and it
works – one organization at a time. As past director of the Iowa Recognition
for Performance Excellence program (a Baldrige-based program) I have seen many
organizations use the Baldrige Criteria to get better (or in the case of entrepreneurs,
get started) and all of them go on to strengthen their communities, provide
more jobs, and do their part to strengthen the economy in general. In this way
the Baldrige program pays for itself while maintaining a valuable performance
excellence standard for all of us to use. I think government funding of the
Baldrige Performance Excellence Program makes perfect sense.
America needs Baldrige!
I’ve been involved with a Baldrige-based state quality program for nearly seven years and am surprised and disappointed at the level of misinformation and misunderstanding surrounding the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program. Clearly, those of us involved in Baldrige on a day-to-day basis have not done a very good job educating the masses on its merits. So, here’s my shot—Baldrige is about creating jobs, increasing business revenues, and saving taxpayer dollars. The value of the program far exceeds the cost – and it benefits U.S. citizens living and working in every state and in every industry sector.
Using resources provided by the Baldrige program, this year Tennessee’s program trained 175 volunteers from diverse segments of the economy on how to drive organizational improvement. Those volunteers are now serving on teams to apply the principles of performance improvement – the Baldrige principles – to the 30-plus organizations that have already conducted a rigorous self assessment using the Baldrige framework. Our volunteers (and we’ve trained several thousand of them over our 18 year history) take what they learn back to their own organizations and use it to improve and enhance their own operations. Increasingly in Tennessee and across the country, school systems, healthcare organizations and local and state governments are embracing the Baldrige program to improve their outcomes.
The Baldrige program has a huge impact on our economy and a tremendous return on investment. If we, as a nation, are serious about seeing real improvements in our schools, governments, healthcare and businesses, Baldrige funding should be preserved now more than ever.
Katie Rawls, President of Tennessee Center for Performance Excellence
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