Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence

The Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award was created in 1987 to to recognize U.S. organizations for their achievements in quality and performance, and to raise awareness about the importance of quality and performance excellence as a global competitive edge. The Award is named for Malcolm Baldrige, former U.S. Secretary of Commerce whose managerial excellence contributed to long-term improvement in efficiency and effectiveness of government.

The Baldrige Criteria are now accepted widely, not only in the United States but also around the world, as the standard for performance excellence. The criteria are designed to help organizations enhance their competitiveness by focusing on two goals: delivering ever improving value to customers and improving overall organizational performance.

The Baldrige performance excellence criteria are a framework that any organization can use to improve overall performance in these seven key categories:

• Leadership. Examines how senior executives guide the organization and how the organization addresses its responsibilities to the public and practices good citizenship.

• Strategic planning. Examines how the organization sets strategic directions and how it determines key action plans.

• Customer and market focus. Examines how the organization determines requirements and expectations of customers and markets; builds relationships with customers; and acquires, satisfies, and retains customers.

• Measurement, analysis, and knowledge management. Examines the management, effective use, analysis, and improvement of data and information to support key organization processes and the organization’s performance management system.

• Human resource focus. Examines how the organization enables its workforce to develop its full potential and how the workforce is aligned with the organization’s objectives.

• Process management. Examines aspects of how key production/delivery and support processes are designed, managed, and improved.

• Business results. Examines the organization’s performance and improvement in its key business areas: customer satisfaction, financial and marketplace performance, human resources, supplier and partner performance, operational performance, and governance and social responsibility. The category also examines how the organization performs relative to competitors.