The Baldrige National Quality Program was established by the U.S. Congress in 1987 to promote quality awareness and to enhance the competitiveness of U.S. businesses. The program is under the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), a nonregulatory federal agency within the Commerce Department, and is administered by the American Society for Quality (www.asq.org/) under contract to the NIST. The program has seven categories of performance criteria including leadership, strategic planning, customer focus, information and analysis, human resources, process management, and business results. The last category, business results, includes four parts: customer-focused results, financial and market results, human resources results, and organizational effectiveness results. Recipients of the prestigious Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award are recognized annually for the firms’ achievements in meeting these performance criteria.

Required
1. Go to the NIST Web site that shows the Baldrige Program’s Criteria for Performance Excellence (www.quality.nist.gov/Business_Criteria.htm) and review the performance criteria. Comment on the degree to which the program stresses strategy development and strategy implementation.
2. How would you compare the process within a firm to develop a balanced scorecard versus developing the performance measures to compete in the Baldrige program?