If you’re looking for a repeatable formula for success, integrate the Baldrige model. The fact that it’s been repeated by dozens of organizations of all types, each with impressive results, affirms that the management model defined by the Baldrige Criteria is a formula for success.

Bain & Co. decided that integrating Baldrige was too obvious, so it spent ten years studying more than 2,000 companies to find the formula for success. Jill Jusko lists the five principles Bain came up with in “A Repeatable Formula for Success” (IndustryWeek, March 16, 2010):

1. Know what the core of your organization is and how you’ve made it work for you. This may include four to seven assets such as brand and talent. In Baldrige terms, it means identifying your core competencies and building on them.

2. Have up to ten non-negotiable principles upon which your organization is built. Baldrige calls these your mission, vision, and values.

3. Prefer distributed leadership, which means fewer layers of management. Baldrige doesn’t prescribe distributed leadership, but it does promote empowerment and agility, which are often associated with fewer layers of management.

4. Keep information coming in from customers through a strong, closed feedback loop system. The Baldrige Criteria ask a number of questions about how you build a customer culture and how you listen to customers.

5. Keep the number of key operating measures small and be sure everyone at levels understands and believes in them. Again, Baldrige doesn’t tell you to keep the number of key measures small, but it does ask how you select, align, and integrate your key measures for tracking daily operations, reviewing performance, and tracking progress on your strategic plan. The Criteria also ask how you make data and information available and accessible.

To see what I mean about the success of Baldrige organizations being repeatable, check out these results:

• Financial Results
• Customer Results
• Workforce Results
• Quality Results

To read more about the Baldrige formula for success, click on these articles:

• 10 Questions to Ask about Everything You Do
• How to Integrate Baldrige
• Leading the Integration of Baldrige
• 5 Added Values of the Baldrige Process
• Experts Tell You What to Fix
• 10 Steps to World Class

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