A conversation with Mark Blazey: a driving force in the quality and performance excellence movement.

Mark L. Blazey Ed.D., is the president of Quantum Performance Group, Inc.--a management consulting and training organization specializing in organization assessment and high-performance systems development. Dr. Blazey has an extensive background in quality systems. He has been a member of the Board of Examiners and a senior examiner for five years for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. He has also served as a judge for the quality awards for New York State, Vermont, Wisconsin, Delaware, and Aruba. Dr. Blazey has participated in and led numerous site visit teams for national, state, and company-private quality awards and audits over the past twelve years. Dr. Blazey trains thousands of quality award examiners and judges for state and national quality award programs. He has written many books and articles on quality, including the Association for Quality (ASQ) Press best sellers Insights to Performance Excellence for Business, Insights to Performance Excellence for Education, and Insights for Performance Excellence in Health Care. Mark is a member and Certified Quality Auditor by the American Society for Quality.

Mark is the heart and soul of the dissemination of the quality movement to many of the examiners that have had the pleasure to have him as an instructor. His knowledge of the industry, his clear practicing of quality approaches, and his ability to translate quality-speak into understandable thoughts and ideas is unsurpassed. It was a pleasure to sit down with him several months ago and get his thoughts on the Baldrige process, improving performance in education, and what led him to starting his own business.

Has the Baldrige Program Made a Difference

Ken Thompson: The Baldrige Award has been around since 1987. Has it really made a difference in corporate America as well as in the education and health care sectors?

Mark Blazey: The U.S. Department of Commerce conducts a stock study each year for the past 8 years that looks at the performance difference in stock price or company value from Baldrige-winning organizations to those that have not. Their data indicate that Baldrige-winning companies (whole company winners), out perform the Standard and Poors Index by nearly five to one, in each year study. Stock price is only one measure but it's an important indicator, at least in the corporate sector where profitability equals survival. Another study, conducted by Hendricks and Singhal looked at broader indicators, such as productivity, sales, profitability, employee growth (that is head count growth), and growing the size of the business. They compared hundreds of organizations that received independent verification of quality systems with those on the Standards and Poors that did not. Organizations with verified quality systems in place significantly out-performed the organizations that did not. Baldrige winners clearly met a higher standard than pretty much everybody else so their performance far and away exceeded the rest. Finally, a study commissioned by the U.S. Commerce Department and conducted by Link and Scott examined the net benefits to the U.S. private sector associated with the Baldrige program. They conservatively concluded the Baldrige program produced a return of $207 to the economy for every $1 spent. We have about 15 years worth of history on that in the corporate sector and the case is clear. Now education and health care are beginning to demonstrate similar benefits based on using the Baldrige award criteria, but they started later than the private sector.