Baldrige Can Help Organized Crime

11/10/2011

Posted by Harry Hertz, the Baldrige Cheermudgeon
After all, for better or worse, organized crime is just another business sector.
So, what led me down the path of crime? It could have been the need to raise funds for the Baldrige Program. But it was actually a blog post by Marc Goodman, a senior adviser to Interpol. His post was on what business can learn from organized crime executed well. He claims there are five lessons business can learn:

1. 1.  Use the news to create opportunity. In crime, this could run the gamut from immediately following natural disasters and setting up a credit card scam to get donations to a local group that tracks your hometown news to see who has gone off to visit family in another state and then burglarizes those houses. In business, it could mean being ready with abundant supplies for sale when bad weather is predicted and advertising ahead that you will have the supplies available. Using news to create opportunity can benefit all business sectors.
2. Outsource to specialists.Identity thieves know where to get those holograms replicated for credit cards. And good manufacturers know who to partner with for critical supply chain needs.
3. Cash isn't the only incentive. Criminals can challenge their workforce with sophisticated security systems. Nonprofits can engage their workforce with the good they are doing for humanity.
4. Exploit the long tail. Scammers will experiment with different e-mail approaches to keep the scam alive. Businesses can seasonally adjust messages to keep business thriving.
5. Collaborate across borders. It is all about supply chains in crime and business and in today's shrinking globe they are global.

So, how does this relate to Baldrige? The Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence ask you the right questions, no matter what business you are pursuing. And furthermore the Criteria help you put key considerations in perspective for enterprise oversight. Let's look at the five examples above.

1. The Baldrige Criteria ask about all aspects of planning and how you are agile to adjust to changing conditions.
2. The Criteria ask all about design and execution (pardon the pun in this case) of your work systems. How do you make those critical decisions about what you will do with your own workforce and what you will do through partners, collaborators, or your supply chain?
3. The Criteria ask all about employee motivation, engagement, and reward and recognition.
4. The Criteria ask about engaging the customer, listening methods, and even the use of social media.
5. The Criteria ask specifically about supplier selection and supply chain management.

Maybe most importantly, Baldrige begins with the Organizational Profile, in which you describe the nature of your business and your operating and strategic environment. All your subsequent responses are based on your profile. I'd love to read the Organizational Profile for an organized crime organization. What could I learn from them for a performance excellence program or for your business?