A Proven Business Beacon Shows the Way

Posted on March 29, 2012 by Dawn Bailey
Posted by Dawn Marie Bailey

In today’s tough economy, CEOs know that they have to guide their businesses “to become leaner, faster, and more customer-oriented, with fact-based decisions and responsiveness to multiple stakeholders, all in pursuit of zero defects and high performance,” said Rosabeth Moss Kanter, chair and director of the Harvard University Advanced Leadership Initiative.
Baldrige 20/20: An Executive’s Guide to the Criteria for Performance Excellence provides evidence that the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence are such a beacon for today’s leaders. This proven framework is one beacon of organizational improvement, a potential guide to sustainability and improved results.
Role-model organizations, especially in the service and small business sectors, two critical areas of the U.S. economy, have shown the way. These organizations have used the Criteria as a guide to organizational improvement and, doing so, they’ve realized

• Improving financial results
• Increasing sales, profits, and market share
• Increasing customer satisfaction and retention
• Improving employee measures for a stable, satisfied workforce
• Increasing productivity and return on assets

as well as

• Reduced defects and nonconformances
• Improved on-time delivery

“One of the most interesting things we’ve learned from the whole Malcolm Baldrige experience,” says MESA Products, Inc., CEO Terry May, “is that when a company has a vision, a mission, and well-defined values, it has the foundation necessary to operate in any environment.”

Explore Baldrige to learn how other CEOs might realize similar successful results. Share and learn best practices as your beacon. Use the Criteria to strengthen your foundation to operate no matter which way the economy turns.