Press Releases

February 2004

For Immediate Release

PRODUCTIVITY PRESS OFFERS DEFINITIVE REFERENCE FOR LEADING BUSINESS PERFORMANCE AWARD CRITERIA

New York… Considered America's highest honor for performance excellence, the Baldrige National Quality Award was established by Congress in 1987 to recognize U.S. organizations for their achievements in quality and performance and to raise awareness about the importance of quality and performance excellence as a competitive edge.

With Baldrige Award Winning Quality - 13th Edition — How to Interpret the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence, by Mark Graham Brown, Productivity Press continues to offer the definitive reference for interpreting the Baldrige criteria. Many aspects of the award have been improved, including:

• Implementation of the most significant change ever to the scoring scale
• Inclusion of an index in the 2004 criteria booklet
• Inclusion of three new terms to the glossary — Ethical behavior, Learning and Segment — which have very specific meanings within the Baldrige framework

The most widely used and recognized resource on the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, this book, updated annually, is a simple and comprehensive resource for understanding the exhaustive criteria of the nation's leading business performance award, and is the only book to detail every category, examination item and area to address within the seven categories of the criteria: Leadership; Strategic Planning; Customer and Market Focus; Measurement, Analysis and Knowledge Management; Human Resource Focus; Process Management and Business Results.

The Baldrige Award is presented annually by the President of the United States to businesses — manufacturing and service, small and large — and to education and healthcare organizations, that apply and are judged to be outstanding in the seven criteria areas. These criteria are designed to help organizations enhance competitiveness by focusing on two goals: delivering ever improving value to customers and improving overall organizational performance.

List price is $39.95. Complimentary review copies are available to media contacts by calling (212) 216-7865 or by e-mailing: leon.carter@taylorandfrancis.com.

Also available: The Pocket Guide to the Baldrige Award Criteria - 10th Edition, by Mark Graham Brown. A handy, quick reference to interpreting the information within the seven Baldrige criteria areas. List price is $5.25.

About the Author

For more than 20 years, Mark Graham Brown has consulted with major corporations and government organizations to help them improve their performance. Current clients include: Discover Financial Services, Ericsson, Cargill, Chevron Chemical, Lutheran Brotherhood, Department of Energy, U.S. Army and the U.S. Navy. He has consulted with a number of Baldrige winners, including IBM, AT&T Universal Card and Ritz Carlton. Brown served as a Baldrige Examiner for three years and as the Overseer of the California Quality Awards for two. He is the author of The Pocket Guide to the Baldrige Award Criteria, Keeping Score and Winning Score..

About Productivity Press

Founded to provide world-class guidance for every level of an organization, Productivity Press is unrivaled in publishing high-quality material on lean manufacturing and business improvement.  Our books, learning tools and newsletter, Lean Manufacturing Advisor, are designed to help educate and support organizations in their efforts to implement the advanced management and manufacturing methodologies required to compete in today’s global business environment.

For more information on Baldrige Award Winning Quality - 13th Edition, The Pocket Guide to the Baldrige Award Criteria - 10th Edition , or any of Productivity Press’ other titles, call 1 (888) 319-5852 or email info@productivitypress.com.