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The Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award: A Spur to Higher Qualit Competition is no longer localfor a growing number of companies, it is global. And as long as national markets remain open, foreign goods will arrive that are either cheaper, better, or both. Therefore, a nation's compa nies must strive to produce goods that are competitive or superior on world markets. This has led some coun tries to establish a national prize that is awarded to com panies that exemplify the best quality practices and improvements Japan was the first country to award a national quality prize, the Deming prize, named after the American statistician who taught the importance of quality to postwar Japan. In the mid-1980s, the United States established the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award in honor of the late Secretary of Commerce. The Award encourages U.S. companies to implement explicit quality practices and when results justify it, companies are encouraged to submit applica- tions and evidence for an award. The Board of Examiners may give up to two awards each year in three categories: manufacturing companies, service compa nies, and small businesses. The award criteria consist of the overall relationship seven measures, whose dynamic relationships are shown in the accompanying figure. 6. Hire the best people and invest in their develop ment. Each of the seven measures carries a certain num- 7. Stay flexible, agile, fast moving and empower ber of award points, the total of which adds to 1,000 points. Of these measures, customer focus and satisfac- everyone in the company to "just do it." tion gets the most points, namely 300. The 300 points 8. Have fun with hoopla and recognition. are further broken down into points for understanding 9. Build quality continuously. customer expectations, managing customer relation 10. Never be satisfied. ships well, determining customer satisfaction, and so on. This is an excellent statement of modern business Thus far, Baldrige awards have gone to such com- and marketing thinking that all companies will do well panies as Xerox, Motorola, Federal Express, IBM, to emulate. AT&T, Texas Instruments, Cadillac division of General Motors, Ritz Carlton Hotel, and a few other companies One company that is currently competing for a Baldrige National Quality Award in the category of small busi ness is a marketing research firm, Custom Research Incorporated (CRI), headquartered in Minneapolis. In 1990, CRI began using the Baldrige criteria as a frame work for developing its quality system. It applied for the award in 1991 and received verbal feedback that led to further improvements. In 1992, CRI was selected to re ceive a site visit. CRI believes that it earned a site visit because it manages the company according to the following principles: 1. Pursue a strategy of focusing on building major client relationships 2. Organize into cross-functional, client-centered teams. 3. Develop processes and procedures to get work done, then measure the results. 4. Explicitly ask clients what they expect from a partnering relationship. 5. Seek client feedback on individual projects and