Malcolm Baldrige Criteria is a key guidelines for Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. To quality for this award, organization has to go through an assessment conducted by a group of assigned Baldrige Assessor. These assessors used the Malcolm Baldrige Criteria and Assessment Guidelines as a benchmark to gauge the performance level of the organization in relation to the scoring guidelines of the criteria.
The question is would implementing Malcolm Baldrige Criteria make an organization achieve business excellence ?Although their is no direct linkage between the Malcolm Baldrige Criteria and Business Excellence, evidence shown that a Baldrige winner could proved its business sustainability as a result in implementing the Baldrige Criteria.
if you study the Malcolm Baldrige Criteria and its respective revisions, you may realize that the criteria is build upon a set of core values and concepts in which they are quite similar to the principles used in Total Quality Management (TQM). Therefore, by implementing the Macolm Baldrige Criteria effectively, it certainly able to show high level of competence in terms of business excellence.
Recently, I made a research into several Asean organizations how they could ride over the Financial Crisis in 1997 and how they cushion the impact of the current global economic crisis. All of them have one thing in common that is, they all implemented the Baldrige Criteria over the years though the level of implementing the criteria varies. Although they are not a Malcolm Baldrige winner because they are not American organizations, all of them use the Criteria as a benchmark for their Business Excellence journey.
You can do your own research into all the Malcolm Baldrige winners in the performance, you will notice that all of them are subjected to the economic challenges as well as global competitions. But they exhibits strong Leadership; Fluid Strategic Planning, Excellent Customer and Market Knowledge with integrated Information system. And they have strong Human Resource Development and Management and a robust Process Management which drove them into strong business results. All these elements by the way are the seven categories of the Malcolm Baldrige Criteria.
It is however, by no chance that these ASEAN organization has any advantage over their competitors. All of them faced with similar challenges. What the difference then? These organizations implemented the Baldrige Criteria not only among the leaders or management team but to the shop floor level staffs to some degree.
Do a research yourself to the Baldrige Criteria and take one of them to implement it. You will be surpise how rigorous it can be and the benefits you will get from implementing the Baldrige Criteria. Even you are not subjected to the Baldrige Assessment, there is not harm to set up your own internal assessment team to following the Baldrige Style of assessment against the Baldrige Criteria.
