Baldrige Award sets new standards for food service marketing success.

On October 18th Ron Brown, Secretary of Commerce, announced the 1993 winners of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. The two winners were Eastman Chemical Company in the Manufacturing category and Ames Rubber Corporation in the Small Business category.

As the National Quality Award

First, Quality in America is being redefined based upon the fundamental principles of waste reduction and customer satisfaction.

Secondly, organizations of all kinds--business, education, health care and government are using the Baldrige Award criteria for self-assessment and organizational development. Since the beginning of the award program, more than 900,000 copies of award criteria have been distributed.

The quality movement is now being embraced by food industry distributors and manufacturers, not to mention the health care and hospitality segments.

Lest someone develop the notion that the quality movement is driven by an altruistic obsession with "goodness" which is an archaic definition of quality, we should take note of the seven basic examination categories in which competitors for this coveted award must excel. They are:

1. Leadership 2. Information and Analysis 3. Strategic Quality Planning 4. Human Resource Development & Management 5. Management of Process Quality 6. Quality and Operational Results 7. Customer Focus and Satisfaction.

Baldrige competitors are thus required to carefully analyze and create performance improvement initiatives in every key area in their business. This exercise can result in a complete cultural overhaul as everyone from the CEO to the janitor learns the new language of "T.Q.M." and "constant improvement". This new movement should be greeted with the utmost enthusiasm by executives in every facet of the food industry, regardless of size or market share, as it provides a new paradigm for managers to address the many unsettling trends recently forecast by some industry analysts.

One such forecast is called "Facing the Forces of Change 2000" published by the National Association of Wholesale Distributors (NAW) working with Arthur Andersen.

This report sets forth five changes in progress sure to impact unaware distributors in a negative way.

1. There are too many wholesale distributors.

2. Market niching & alternate channel formats will accelerate.

3. Fewer players in each channel.

4. Larger profitability gap between best & worst managed company.

5. Advanced technology will squeeze waste out of the system.

This report asks the question: What will it take to remain a leader in wholesale distribution?

The answer: Total Quality Management partnering with key suppliers and customers, unbundling services, matrix pricing, revised compensation for sales people, variable compensation programs for non-sales employees, a new approach towards education and training and more.

If these predictions are half true, and I believe they are, the worst thing distribution management can do now is wait and see what happens. Conventional wisdom says now is the time to investigate the Fundamental Principles of the Total Quality Movement and see if it may hold the key to our continued success or even the key to our business survival.

Those distributors, small and large, who adopt this new philosophy early will likely thrive on the coming changes in food service distribution.

At Golbon, this message is a part of our mission. Our challenge is to assist distributors and suppliers in a new way of working together not as "partners in name only", but as partners with a mutual mission based upon mutual trust and respect, based upon cooperation rather than confrontation.

Thomas A. Baldridge President/CEO Golbon Marketing Group