When President Obama had lunch with the CEOs of Xerox, AT&T, Honeywell, and Coke, they talked about Baldrige. Well, not in so many words, but they did discuss the climate that produced the Baldrige program and the focus on improving American competitiveness.

In the August 10, 2009, issue of Newsweek (Obama: The BusinessWeek Interview) the President said, “In the 1980s, when everybody was afraid Japan was going to eat our lunch, a lot of companies did a 180 in terms of quality improvement, efficiency, increasing productivity. There was a change in corporate culture that significantly boosted corporate productivity for a long time and helped create the boom of the ’90s.”

The CEOs pointed out that some sectors resisted the change: healthcare, education, energy, and government. The solution? “What we’ve tried to say is that there are some foundations, some pillars that have to be in place in order for that next round of growth to take off,” said the President.

We need to point these folks toward the Baldrige model. When it comes to foundations, nothing compares to the rigor of evaluating and improving your entire management system using the Baldrige Criteria. And when it comes to pillars, the eleven Baldrige core values define the characteristics of high-performing organizations in every sector.

I think the sectors identified by the CEOs have realized that resisting change doesn’t work. Healthcare has embraced the Baldrige process with stunning results. Education has been slower to the table–there’s less pressure for change than in healthcare–but momentum is building. I’ve been working with an energy company that is transforming the way it does business to become more process–and Baldrige–oriented.

It’s too early to tell whether government will rise to the challenge. The U.S. Army’s Communities of Excellence program aligns with Baldrige and has been used to drive improvement for several years now. The City of Coral Springs, Florida, received the Baldrige Award in 2007. I’ve heard of a few cities and states using Baldrige. It’s not much, but it’s a start.

If every organization was a Baldrige organization, that is, well-run and exemplifying the Baldrige core values, the next round of growth would not only take off, it would sustain American competitiveness for decades to come.

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