1. Our Journey to Baldrige Sara Potterfield Potterfield Group Vice President-Public Relations

2. Why did we start this journey? Can you see the future? We had good performance Needed great sustainability of performance

3. Our First Attempt A TQM Expert lead our first attempt in 1996 Wrote the application with some collaboration Administered a few surveys, Customer and employee We lacked the systematic process to change anything

4. Our Second Attempt Our second attempt was a unified front Baldrige Fall 2004 –We read every question and answered it –We went back and answered it again and again –We finally wrote the “how our business should be run” application

5. Our Second Attempt Our Baldrige Application –We reviewed the application for gaps –We fixed the gaps – implemented many new processes –Applied for and received the Missouri Quality Award in 2008 –Applied for and received the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award in 2009

6. What did we learn? It is really easy to miss the word “How” Figure out what the questions were asking Expect 3 solid years of hard work Must make improvements every day Goals must be measureable Mission Statement is central

7. What worked well? Support from the top The entire SLT wrote the application 30% of our salaried staff as examiners Dedicated time off site to work Our culture of learning Deployment throughout the organization Celebrating victories

8. What worked well? Start writing the application early Everyone must understand criteria Code of Conduct Master Planning Calendar Capacity planning Look for Approach, Deployment, Learning and Integration

9. What key things changed? The level of service that we are able to offer the Customer Our ability to focus The language we all speak The integration between departments “…but is that systematic?” The quality of our staff Identification and focus on key results

10. What key things changed? Our ability to segment our data Our Customer Listening Posts Many paradigm shifts Communication to all levels improved We know what processes are being performed Documentation and training Common strategic objectives Benchmarks help us improve

11. Questions? Thank you! Our best wishes to you in your pursuit of performance excellence! For more information: www.AmericaNeedsBaldrige.com qms@midwayusa.com