Im a small business owner. How do I decide whether Baldrige is for me, and what can I expect to get out of it?
One of the strengths of the Baldrige approach is that it applies to organisations of all sizes, and all varieties. The entry-level New Zealand version of Baldrige (the Government and private sector co-sponsored Business Development Quality Awards) accepts applications from any organisations, regardless of size or purpose, and businesses as small as two people have done well in the past. The Dallas-based 1998 Baldrige small business winner, Texas Nameplate Company, has only about 66 people. Whatever the size of your organisation, and whatever its function, you’ll get value from Baldrige. You will have to make some judgments about how to apply the criteria, but don’t use that as an excuse for ducking the hard questions! In short, if you need to do better (and who doesn’t in this fast-changing world?), and you want a structured, thorough, customer- and process-focussed approach that will provide validated, mainstream assistance, then Baldrige is worth a look. And you don’t need expensive
