People who embrace Baldrige in their organizations often become zealots for the Baldrige model. Larry Potterfield, CEO of MidwayUSA, which received the Baldrige Award in 2009, is a zealot.

MidwayUSA is a small, family-owned shooting supply retailer in Columbia, Missouri. Potterfied convinced a number of local business leaders to form the Columbia chapter of the Baldrige Performance Excellence Group with the goal of promoting Columbia as a “city of excellence.”

“This is a really, really smart and well-educated community,” Potterfield is quoted as saying in the Columbia Daily Tribune (“Group pushes for government, business excellence,” T.J. Greaney, March 15, 2010). He adds, “But there’s never been a tool to help us individually and collectively raise the bar.”

Columbia is a city of 100,000 located about halfway between St. Louis and Kansas City. It’s a college town (University of Missouri) in which more than half the residents hold a bachelor’s degree, making it the thirteenth most highly-educated municipality in the U.S., according to Wikipedia.

Smart people gravitate to the Baldrige model, as Columbia is demonstrating. The model is relevant for any organization a community has: businesses, healthcare, government, education, and nonprofits.

And Potterfield and MidwayUSA stand ready to help. Thirty-three of the company’s 243 employees have been trained as Missouri Quality Award examiners. According to Potterfield, he and his employees will donate as much time as needed to help others learn about the program.

I hope it works and that other cities take on the challenge. Who wouldn’t want to live in a city of excellence?

To read more about becoming a Baldrige organization, click on these articles:

• The Universality of the Baldrige Model
• How to Integrate Baldrige
• What to Tell Your Boss about Baldrige
• 10 Steps to World Class
• Learn from the Best Application Summaries

(4 votes, average: 4.50 out of 5)

 Loading ...