Earlier today, U.S. Secretary Carlos Gutierrez announced the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award recipients for 2007. This year marks the 20th anniversay of the award initially established in 1987 through an act of the U.S. Congress at the urging of President Ronald Reagan. This is also the first year that nonprofit/government organizations were eligibile for consideration, and two of this year's winners fit that newly-defined category.
2007 Award Recipients are as follows:
PRO-TEC Coating Co., Leipsic, Ohio (small business)
Mercy Health System, Janesville, Wisc. (health care)
Sharp HealthCare, San Diego, Calif. (health care)
City of Coral Springs, Coral Springs, Fla. (nonprofit)
U.S. Army Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center (ARDEC), Picatinny Arsenal, N.J. (nonprofit)
In describing this year's recipients, Secretary Gutierrez said, "I am pleased to join President Bush in congratulating the five outstanding organizations that have been named to receive this year’s Baldrige Award. The organizations we recognize today have given us superb examples of innovation, excellence and world-class performance. They serve as role models for organizations of all kinds striving to improve effectiveness and increase value to their customers.”
This year's recipients were selected from an initial field of 85, with each applicant evaluated rigorously by an independent board of examiners in seven areas: leadership; strategic planning; customer and market focus; measurement, analysis and knowledge management; workforce focus; process management; and results. The evaluation process for the 2007 Baldrige Award recipients included about 1,000 hours of review and an on-site visit by teams of examiners to clarify questions and verify information in the applications.
Each of these award recipients will be officialy recognized for their achievement at a special ceremony next spring or summer in Washington, D.C., depending on White House scheduling availability. The award is traditionally presented by the U.S. President; although, in each of the last three years, Vice President Cheney has substituted for President Bush who was unavailable.
The best avenues for learning more about how these organizations are achieving such outstanding results are:
(1) Get connected with your state's local performance excellence organization (http://www.tncpe.org for Tennessee). At present, 37 of the 50 states have such a nonprofit operating within their boundaries, whose express purpose is to assist organizations interested in improving their performance through use of the Baldrige framework; AND/OR
(2) Consider attending the National Quest for Excellence Conference in Washington, D.C. (April 22-25, 2008), where each of the recipients (and some of the more recent recipients in other sectors) will be sharing their best practices (http://www.baldrige.nist.gov/Quest_for_Excellence.htm).