I remember helping a manufacturer early in its Baldrige application process. It was its industry’s worldwide leader and had been for several years. It worked closely with its distributors and had ongoing customer contact. It assumed it knew what each customer group required even though it had never formally determined those requirements or tested them with customers to make sure the lists were right.

When I presented my evaluation of its application to senior leadership, my first point was that it did not have a rock-solid understanding of customer requirements. I thought they were going to tear my throat out until the president interrupted and said he thought I had a point. As a result, the company hired a market research firm to close this gap. Two years later, it received the Baldrige Award.

The Baldrige model is a process model. The starting point for any effective process is knowing what the customers of that process require. That’s true at the macro level — profound knowledge of what your customers require of your organization — and at the micro level — profound knowledge of what customers require of each process. Plunging ahead on the assumption that you know these requirements puts your organization on shaky footing.

To read more about understanding customer requirements, click on these articles:

• Smart Question #3: Who Are Our Customers and What Do They Require?
• Kano Satisfaction Model
• Be Careful How You Measure Customer Satisfaction
• Walk in Your Customer’s Body Armor
• KEYSTONE: Customer Knowledge