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Blogrige

The Official Baldrige Blog

Vietnam News

By: Harry Hertz “The Baldrige Cheermudgeon”

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Headline, February 3, 2012 

"Enterprises receive National Quality Award 2012".  Sixty-seven outstanding enterprises were selected to receive the Vietnam National Quality Award. The golden prize is being presented to 17 enterprises and the silver prize to the remaining 50 enterprises.The Award is an annual accolade presented by the Prime Minister. The purpose of the Award is to "help businesses solidify their position in the domestic market and enhance their competitiveness in the international market." The assessment for the Award is based on seven criteria: Leadership, Strategic Planning, Customer Focus and Market, Communication and Performance Analysis, Human Resources Development, Process Management, and Business Results.

Do these criteria sound familiar?

I assert they are the Baldrige Criteria categories after translation to Vietnamese and then back to English. I frequently get asked about other national quality awards. Vietnam is one of many listed in a database last updated in 2010. I also get asked about the benefit to U.S. competitiveness of having other nations use the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence or related criteria. This is a good question, with a good answer, in my opinion. The answer is that using U.S. based criteria levels the playing field for our companies, enhances the chances of finding good international suppliers (and customers), and ensures the use of validated criteria for defining excellence globally.

I am interested in hearing your thoughts and your experiences with other national quality awards. Dawn Bailey will be exploring some of the ones in Southeast Asia in her next blog.

Baldrige Excellence Framework (Criteria) and Community

About the author

Dr. Harry Hertz Photo

Harry Hertz “The Baldrige Cheermudgeon”

I am Harry Hertz, the Baldrige Cheermudgeon, and Director Emeritus of the Baldrige Program. I joined the Program in 1992 after a decade in management in the analytical chemistry and chemical sciences laboratories at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the home of the Baldrige Program. I started my career at NIST (NBS) as a bench analytical chemist.

My favorite aspects of the Baldrige Program are: (1) the opportunity to interact with leading thinkers from all sectors of the U.S. economy who serve as volunteers in the Baldrige Program, who participate in the Baldrige Executive Fellows Program, and who represent Award applicants at the forefront of the continuous journey to performance excellence, and (2) the intellectual challenge of synthesizing ideas from leading thinkers and from personal research into Insights on the Road to Performance Excellence and other blogs that tackle challenges at the “leading edge of validated leadership and performance practice,” and contribute to the continuous revision of the Baldrige Performance Excellence Framework.

Outside of work I spend my time with family (including three beautiful granddaughters), exercising, baking bread, traveling, educating tomorrow’s leaders, and participating on various boards and board committees.

Related posts

Comments

Walter Eschmann on March 5, 2013 10:33 PM

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I am a Veteran of Vietnam and loved the country and people whom I met there.... Glad to see that some of our best concepts are being used there to increase their potential in the global market place.....

Steve Guns on March 5, 2013 11:04 PM

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Harry, Your article raised a question in my mind - with the removal of Federal Government funding for Baldrige, has the restriction of supporting the use of the Baldrige Criteria exclusively in the US been removed? If so, does that open up new opportunities for Baldrige?

harry.hertz@nist.gov on March 5, 2013 11:34 PM | Replied to

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Steve, Thanks for the question. The use of the Baldrige Criteria around the globe has always been supported by the Baldrige Program. We are part of a Global Excellence Model network and invite other countries to attend our examiner training and use our materials. We believe a uniform approach to performance excellence benefits the U.S. and our partners in a global economy. The Baldrige Award is restricted to U.S. organizations and U.S. components of foreign organizations. That policy remains in effect, since the Award is a Presidential Award for U.S. organizations.

Bruce Finne on March 6, 2013 2:18 AM

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My wife and I were in North Viet Nahm a few years ago. People were friendly and we enjoyed staying in Hanoi and touring the surrounding area. In the city we saw many, many small shops and businesses. Our impression was that it definitely was a country on the move. I think they would be very good in the use of the criteria. Happy retirement Harry. Bruce

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