Rediscover an Organization's Potential with the "Baldrige Criteria's Power"

A recent study conducted by a professor at the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business unveils "a framework for organizations to rediscover their potential and charge ahead using the levers of business excellence and innovation." Sunil Mithas, professor of information systems, said the framework is used by the Indian conglomerate, the Tata Group, whose revenues have multiplied tenfold since 2002. What is that framework? It's the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence, licensed and adapted by Tata into its Tata Business Excellence Model.

The Tata group—whose many well-known brands include Jaguar Land Rover, Taj Hotels, Tetley, and Eight O’Clock Coffee—transformed itself from a $4 billion domestic company in 1991 to a $103 billion global enterprise by 2014, with an untiring focus on business excellence—a transformation derived from the Baldrige Criteria.

According to Mithas, the "Baldrige Criteria's power" helped the Indian holding company transform itself. One key factor was Tata's "relentless focus on tracking and improving every measurable attribute of corporate excellence, from customer satisfaction to employee morale to strategy development and implementation. As it happens, Tata’s corporate leaders were greatly influenced by the principles behind the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. . . . Because of its broad holdings and massive scale, the Tata Group is sometimes called 'the GE of India.' But in terms of growth, if not sheer size, Tata outsmarts its American cousin. GE had revenues of $146 billion in 2013, up from $54 billion in 1991. Tata lags GE at $103 billion today, but that’s up from a mere $5.8 billion in 1992."

Mithas recently discussed his Tata-based study in a podcast: “Innovation Engine.” According to the episode description, the podcast discusses what companies can learn from the Tata Group's "ascension to becoming one of the world's most well-known—and profitable—businesses in the world, . . . [discussing] the Malcolm Baldridge framework for measuring innovation, why it's important to have a long-term vision for innovation, and a number of different innovation competitions that Tata has set up to encourage innovation within its companies."