Missouri is on the map nationally because our state has been so successful in turning out Malcolm Baldrige Quality Award recipients. Missouri was home to 50 percent of Baldrige Award recipients in 2015 and is second only to Texas in the total amount of Baldrige recipients hailing from the great state of Missouri.
MidwayUSA of Columbia, Mo. (small business; two-time recipient) and Mid-America Transplant of St. Louis, Mo. (nonprofit) were 2015 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award recipients.
Both organizations have received the Missouri Quality Award prior to being recipients of the national award. Both the Missouri Quality Award (MQA) or the Baldrige Award use the same criteria; however, the benefit of going through the state program first is the opportunity to receive feedback that identifies opportunities for improvement that can be resolved prior to applying at the national level. Applicants going through their state programs first tend to do better at the national level.
EIMF Chief Executive Officer, Sherry Marshall, attended the 2015 Baldrige Award Ceremony earlier this month in Baltimore, Maryland.
“The perception at the national level is that Missouri is a leader in organizational performance excellence,” said Marshall. “I was proud to be there representing the Excellence in Missouri Foundation and honoring MidwayUSA and Mid-America Transplant.”
“Earning the Baldrige Award is hard. It requires an organizational commitment to excellence, driven by senior leadership with vision, accomplished by engaged employees, and enabled by a customer-focused culture,” said U.S. Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker, addressing the ceremony audience via videotaped remarks. “But today’s winners were willing to make that commitment. As a result, they are creating some of America’s best products and services that bring value to their customers every day.”
The Baldrige Award was established by Congress in 1987 and is not given for specific products or services. Since the first group was recognized in 1988, 109 awards have been presented to 102 organizations (including seven repeat recipients).
Congratulations to MidwayUSA and Mid-America Transplant! We’ll feature both organizations on our website over the next few weeks.
To learn more about the 2015 Baldrige Award recipients and highlights from the awards ceremony, head over to the Blogrige, the official Baldrige blog, here.
To learn more about the Baldrige Excellence Framework and Malcolm Baldrige Quality Award, check out our free white paper: The Gold Standard: How Businesses Can Achieve Performance Excellence.
