Quality Progress

Reading the article (pag 9; QP 11/2018)  on the Baldridge Award: "Judges to reconvene, make recommendations" it struck me that of the 12 site visits planned only 2 (some 17%) will be in businesses, more specifically in the small business category. To me this indicates that the impact of and interest in the Malcolm Baldridge Award and the associated model has come down drastically to almost non-existent in manufacturing and service industries. Also, to the best of my knowledge, none of the high profile companies currently fueling the digital transformation like Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Uber, Tesla, booking.com, etc have ever applied for the award (I stand corrected if this is not true). I think this should be a reason for concern about the relevance and importance of excellence models in today's successful businesses. It would interest me to hear the comments of other ASQ members on this. I see the same happening in Europe with the EFQM model.  

It is important to consider exactly who Malcolm Baldrige was, and how he fit into the US political history.


50 years ago, Malcolm "Mac" Baldrige was included among the Who's-Who of the Nixon presidential campaign team.
http://library.cqpress.com/cqalmanac/document.php?id=cqal68-1282669


On this site, Malcolm Baldrige is included among such notorious characters as John Mitchell, Bob Haldeman, Roger Ailes, and Richard M. Nixon.


With the increasing political divide in the USA, and similar movements emerging within other countries, the association of the Quality profession to prominent Republicans may be a deterrent to the leadership of Silicon Valley - based enterprises who are more inclined to support Democrat political figures like Obama.  


The renaming of this award to a more neutral political figure might help is acceptance.  Maybe if it was renamed the Steve Jobs Award, that would invoke interest in the innovative spirit and striving for superior quality that characterized Steve Jobs' legacy at Apple and Pixar.

Wow Daniel Zrymiak‍, I had no idea of the historical context of the Baldridge award! Thank you for the illumination.

Thank you Amanda Foster‍ 


I am a fan of Bob Woodward and his books, so I have an interest in tracing people back to their Watergate connections.  I don't want to besmirch Malcolm Baldrige, who was a distinguished and highly regarded Cabinet Secretary for President Reagan when he unfortunately died.  


If you follow NHL Hockey, some of the awards have been renamed to reflect the player who exemplifies the recognition.  The award for top scorer was named for Maurice "Rocket" Richard, who was the first player to score 50 goals in 50 games.  In such a case, if the Quality Award were rededicated to honor an individual who personified the achievement of breakthrough quality, that would create considerable prestige.  

Willy, You are right, we are observing a similar trend with The Deming Prize Award where the interest is slowing down from leading Asian economies except for India and UAE. The Award has fewer participants as compared with past few years. The reason may be award requirements are not aligned with today's digital world requirements.Through such models businesses get the opportunity to upgrade from their current state to a whole new one, so that they can met pressing needs of their customers, regulators etc. Such model may face crucial time ahead if not updated as per current Industry 4.0 challenges