Who is Malcolm Baldrige?

Malcolm Baldrige was US Secretary of Commerce (1981-1987) and a leader in quality management. He helped create the US Quality Improvement Act of 1987 and in his honour the annual award is named after him (Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award). The US President presents the award.

The US is not unique in having a national quality award. In 1951 Japan established the Deming Prize. The United Nations lists 75 countries with national quality awards from Russia to Brazil from Singapore to Canada. These awards are backed-up by robust and proven methodologies such as the European Excellence Model and the US Criteria for Performance Excellence. This is serious stuff.

Living in the UK I have no idea the degree to which US businesses and their leaders aspire to win the Malcolm Baldrige award but I would imagine it moves quality high up the business agenda. I have discovered that we in the UK have a national quality award as well. When I look at some of the previous UK winners e.g. Rover and ICL it’s a bit of a worry. But it's not entirely fair as a number of winners are strong independent businesses.

So where am I going with this? As Lean Six Sigma practitioners we are at the vanguard of creating a culture of business excellence. National awards are designed exactly for this purpose. So I am interested to understand their perceived value to see if I should review them in-depth. To answer the question I have set-up a small online survey to gauge peoples opinions.

If you click on the link below you will be taken to my online survey page. I have no idea what the response rate will be or of the accuracy of the responses. But I thought I would try it all the same. I will keep the survey open for a week or so depending on responses and will then publish the results.

Thanks
Robin